GAMBLE. To engage in unlawful play. To play games for stakes or bet in them. It is the most apt word in the language to ex press these ideas; Bennett v. State, 2 Yerg. (Tenn.) 472.
A gambler is one who follows or practices games of chance or skill with the expecta tion and purpose of thereby winning money or other property. Buckley v. O'Niel, 113 Mass. 193, 18 Am. Rep. 466. A common gambler is one who furnishes facilities for gambling, or keeps or exhibits a gambling table, establishment, device, or apparatus. People v. Sponsler, 1 Dak. 291, 46 N. W. 459, citing cases. A gambling policy is a life-in surance policy taken out by one who has no insurable interest in the life of the assured. See INSURABLE INTEREST. A gambling deviee is any contrivance or apparatus by which it is determined who is the winner or loser in a chance or contest on which money or value is staked or risked ; Portis v. State, 27 Ark. 362 ; State v. Grimes, 49 Minn. 443, 52 N. W. 42; and the courts look to the substance of the game and not to the name merely ; Smith v. State, 17 Tex. 191. The words "or other
device" in an anti-gambling statute are not too loose and vague to be the basis of an in dictment ; U. S. v. Speeden, 1 Cra. C. C. 535, Fed. Cas. No. 16,366; contra; State v. Mann, 2 Or. 238. The term does not include imple ments used also for innocent amusement, as a pack of cards; State v. Hardin, 1 Kan. 474; nor is a horse-race a gambling device; State v. Lemon, 46 Mo. 375; nor the "game of cards commonly called poker"; State v. Mann, 2 Or. 238, where it was said that a device must be something tangible, and a game is not that but merely the result of using the device; but this ruling is criticized by Deady, J., in In re Lee Tong, 18 Fed. 253, with which also should be examined State v. Gitt Lee, 6 Or. 428. See 2 Whart. Cr. L. § 1465 ; GAMING; LOTTERY; FUTURES; STOCK; WAGER.