GAMBLING, or GAMING (from AS. game nian, gainen, gomen, game, sport, joy). The art or practice of playing a game of hazard, or one depending partly on skill and partly on hazard, with a view to pecuniary gain. Games of this na ture were forbidden by the Romans, both under the Republic and the Empire. The ground on which this was done was not the tendency of such practices to demoralize the populace, but to ren der them effeminate and unmanly. It belonged to the cediles to attend to the public interest by pun ishing violations of the gaming laws. During the Saturnalia, which was a period of general license, these games were permitted, and a like indulgence at other seasons was extended to old men both among the Greeks and the Romans. Nor has this vice been confined to civilized nations, either in the ancient or the modern world; Tacitus mentions its existence among the ancient Ger mans, and it is known to prevail among many half-civilized and even savage tribes at the pres ent day.
It is remarkable that in England, as in Rome, the ground on which gambling was first prohibit ed was not its demoralizing, but its effeminating, influence on the community. The act 33 Henry VIII., ch. 9 (1541) had in view the double object of "maintaining artillery and debarring unlaw ful games." On that act followed 16 Charles II., ch. 7, and 9 Anne, ch. 14, the latter of which declared that all bonds or other securities given for money won at play, or money lent at the time to play with, should be utterly void, and all mortgages or incumbrances of lands made on the same consideration should be made over to the use of the mortgagor. Such continued to be the statute law till 1845, when there was passed the act 8 and 9 Vict., ch. 109, which, though it repealed the obsolete provisions of 33 Henry VIII., and 16 Charles II., and 9 Anne, reenacted the former prohibitions against card-playing and other games, and was followed up (in 1853 and 1854) by the acts for suppressing bet ting houses (16 and 17 Vict., ch. 119) and gaming houses (17 and 18 Vict., ch. 38). By 8 and 9 Vict., ch. 109, the common law of Eng land was altered, and wagers, which, with some exceptions, had hitherto been considered legal contracts, were declared to be no longer enforce able in a court of law. This prohibition does
not affect contributing to prizes for lawful games. In Scotland an opposite rule had been followed, the judges having held, irrespective of the character of the game, or of any statutory prohibition regarding it, that "their proper func tions were to enforce the rights of parties aris ing out of serious transactions, and not to pay regard to sponsions lutlicras." But partial as similation has now been effected in this respect between the laws of the two countries by a stat ute, which also provides that cheating at play shall be punished as obtaining money under false pretenses. The mode of enforcing the act 8 and 9 Vict., ch. 109, was defective, and the act 17 and 18 Vict., ch. 38, put heavy penalties on those who obstructed the police by putting chains or bolts against the doors of gaming houses or other wise delaying the entry into such houses, and any apparatus or arrangement for giving alarm to the persons inside was declared to be evidence that the house was a gaming house. The Sum mare Jurisdiction acts of 1879 and 1884 have provided summary remedies against the violators of gaining laws. The Betting-Houses Act (16 and 17 Vict., eh. 119) was passed to put down another kind of gaining—namely, in houses where money is received as or for the considera tion for any undertaking to pay money in the event of any horse race, or other race, fight, game, sport, or exercise.- All such betting houses are declared to be gaming houses within the statute 8 and 9 Vict., ch. 109, and similar powers of search may be resorted to. But nothing in the act extends to a person holding stakes to be paid to the winner of any race or lawful sport, game, or exercise. Besides these statutes, the Intoxicating Liquors Licensing Act of 1872 puts a penalty on the keeper of any house for the sale of liquors allowing any gaming for money or money's worth on the premises. By the vagrant acts all persons are liable to penalties for play ing at games on a public highway or public place. These enactments do not interfere with gaming in private houses.