GAMES OF CHANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 24, 22 July 1911, Page 5

GAMES OF CHANCE.

APPEAL COURT'S DECISION. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Friday. In the case Scott v. Jackson, heard at last Appeal Court, the appeal was allowed and the conviction quashed. By this decision the court lays down that 6nooker and other pool games, though containing an element of chance, are mainly games of skill and not games of chance in the meaning of the Gaming Act.

The case was heard by Sir liohcrt Stout, Sir Joshua Williams, and Justices Denniston, Edwards, and Chapman. It was admitted that the games played were ordinary English billiards, and'all varieties of the game. All were games wihcre skill -was combined with an element (if chance of varying degree. Sir Joshua Williams, in his judgment, said lu> thought there could be no doubt that the term gaming-house as used in the statute meant, prima facie, a gam-ing-house which would have been indictable as a. common laws nuisance. Tie was of opinion that the games played on the premises were not only not unlawful games, but games which were expressly recognised as lawful. The practice of playing in that way in licensed billiard rooms had been carried on for many years without objection, and there was nothing very much from which it could be inferred that playing in that way had during those years, or is now, been detrimental to public morals. Justices Denim,ston, Edwards and Chapman agreed; and the Chief Justice dissented. The conviction was quashed.