The punishment which may be inflicted on gaming-house keepers in addition to the penalties mentioned in 33 Hen. VIII. c. 9, are a penalty not exceeding 1001. or imprisonment with or without hard la bour for a tenn not exceeding six months.
Gambling in the palace where the king resides for the time being, is excepted both in the statute of Anne c. 14, and of Geo. II. c. 34.
By 5 Geo. IV. c. 83, persons betting &c m any street or open and public place are punishable summarily as rogues and vagabonds.
On the night of the 8th of May, 1844, a simultaneous entry was made by the police into all the common gambling houses, seventeen in number, which were then known to exist in the metropolitan police district. Gambling is also carried on in the metropolis at places where bil liard tables are kept, at public-houses, and also at cigar-shops. The evidence taken before the select committees ou gaming in 1844 contains a mass of formation on the subject of gaming and gambling both in Loudon and elsewhere.
In most parts of Germany gaming is allowed ; and the magnificent saloons set apart for roulette and rouge-et-noir at and other German watering places, are well known to English travellers on the Continent. The respective princes of the states in which these fashionable gaming-places exist derive a large re venue by letting the exclusive privilege of keeping gaming establishments.
In the United States of America, but more particularly in the southern States, the practice of gambling is very common, though restrained, we believe, in all the States by legislative enactments. In the state of New York, wagers are consi dered a good ground of an action. In Pennsylvania the Supreme Court has de cided that no action can be maintained to recover money lost by any wager or bet.
Gaming (aka) among the Romans was played with dice. The earliest enact ment against it is referred to by Plautus and Cicero ; but it is not certain what the penalty was. Under the late republic and the empire gaming was a common vice, but it was considered to be disre putable. The little that is known of the penalties against gaming is contained in the Digest (xi. tat. 5) and the Code o Justinian (iii. tit. 43). The praetor in this, as in many like cases, placed the encourager of gaming under disabilities.
If a man lent his house for gaming, and, while the gaming was going on there, was beaten or had anything stolen from his house, the praetor refused him all remedy. A Senatus consultum, the name and time of which are not mentioned, prohibited all playing for money, except the stake was made upon the five athletic exercises enumerated ; and, as we must infer, by the persons who joined in the exercises. If a slave, or a son in the power of his father, lost money at gaming, the father or owner of the slave might recover it. If a slave won money, there might be an action for it against the master; but the demand against the master could not ex ceed the amount of the slave's peculium, that is, the property which the slave held as his ;mu, according to Roman custom, with the permission of his master. The praetor's edict also allowed an action against parents and patrons in respect of money lost (to children or the patrons freed men, as we must understand it). Justinian made several constitutions against gaming. A man who lost money at gaming was not bound to pay it; and if he did pay, it could be recovered by him or his successors (in the Roman sense) from the winner or his heredes any 1 time within thirty years. If they did not choose to recover it, the father or de fender (defensor) of the town in which the money was lost might recover it, or any other person might. The money, when re covered, was laid out for public purposes. Gamblers were also liable to a fine. Spiritual persons who violated the gaming laws, or were present at gambling, were suspended for three years and confined in a monastery (Novell. 123, c. 10).
The following abstracts of the laws relating to gaming in different countries were prepared by J. M. Ludlow, Esq., and were laid before the Select Commit tee of the House of Commons on gaming, by H. Bellenden Ker, Esq.:— By the French law, as it stood before the Revolution, minors alone could re cover their losses at play ; but no win nings could be sued for except in the case of warlike sports ; when not excessive, games of strength and skill were per mitted, games of mere chance absolutely forbidden.