ONE BET

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11657, 23 October 1923, Page 5

ONE BET

MEANING OF GAMING HOUSE.

AN IMPORTANT JUDGMENT.

That a single bet does net make a room a common gaming house was the main point in a judgment delivered byMr J. W. Poynton, S.M., when dismissing an Auckland Police Court prosecution against Francis Lyndon (Mi Singer), licensed keeper of tho Waitemata Billiard Saloon.

The facts were that bets wore made in tho saloon on several dates in June last, the players, and in one instance, two bystanders having made bets on the results of the game. It was not proved that defendant saw the money staked, or beard the conversations. On one occasion, some trouble arose over £8 which was missing, this having been the amount of the stakes on a game. Following the disappearance of the money, defendant instructed his markers that they were not to hold stakes for anyone. A gaming house was ono where some game, or more than one, was played for money,’ said the magistrate. * A betting house might have no players or games of any sort. Billiards being a game of skill might be played for money without the proprietor of the room being guilty of keeping a common gaming house. There would be nothing against tho law in a person making a bet on the result of a game, but it must rot be made in the room. It would- be an infringement of the Gaming Act if anyone frequenting the room, or the proprietor, made a business of betting. Players wagering on tho result of tho game between tbcinselvee were not committing an offence, but a player betting with an outsider, or two outsiders betting, were in a different position. Applying this test it would be found that in this case only one bet had been made. The decision of Mr Justice Hawkins was that a single bet would not make a room a common gaming house. Mr Justico Snlmond had recently affirmed this principle in a Wellington case. The charge of keeping a common gaming house was therefore dismissed.