A contract between two or more persons by which they agree to play by certain rules at cards, dice, or other contrivance, and that one shall be the loser, and the other the winner. When considered in itself, and without regard to the end proposed by the player’s, there is nothing in it contrary to natural equity, and the contract will be considered as a reciprocal gift, which the parties make of the thing played for, under certain. conditions. 2. There are some games which depend altogether upon skill, others, upon chance, and some others are of a mixed nature. Billiards is an example of the first; lottery of the second; and backgammon of the last. 3. In general, at common law all games are lawful, unless some fraud has been practiced, or such games are contrary to public policy. Each of the parties to the contract must, 1. Have a right to the money or thing played for. 2. He must have given his full and free consent, and not been entrapped by fraud. 3. There must be equality in the play. 4. The play must be conducted fairly. But even when all these rules have been observed, the courts will not countenance gaming by giving too easy a remedy for the recovery of money won at play. 4. But when fraud has been practiced, as in all other cases, the contract is void and in some cases, when the party has been guilty of cheating, by playing with false dice, cards and the like, he may be indicted at common law, and fined and imprisoned, according to the heinousness of the offence. 1 Russ. on Cr, 406. 5. Statutes have been passed in perhaps all the states forbidding gaining for money, at certain games, and prohibiting the recovery of money lost at such games.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
“The act or practice of playing games for stakes or wagers; gambling; the playing at any game of hazard. An agreement between two 6r more persons to play together at a game of chance for a stake or wager which is to become the property of the winner, and to which ail contribute. In re Stewart (D. C.) 21 Fed. 398; People v. Todd, 51 Hun, 446, 4 N. Y. Supp. 25; State v. Shaw, 39 Minn. 153, 39 N. W. 305; State v. Morgan, 133 N. C. 743, 45 S. E. 1033. Gaming is an agreement between two or more to risk money on a contest or chance of any kind, where one must be loser and the other gainer. Bell v. State, 5 Sneed (Tenn.) 507. In general, the words “gaming” and “gambling,” in statutes, are similar in meaning, and either one comprehends the idea that, by a bet, by chance, by some exercise of skill, or by the transpiring of some event unknown until it occurs, something of value is, as the conclusion of premises agreed, to be transferred from a loser to a winner, without which latter element there is no gaming or gambling. Bish. St. Crimes, f 85a.”Gaming” implies, when used as describing a condition, an element of illegality; and, when people are said to be “gaming,” this generally supposes that the “games” have been games in which money comes to the victor or his backers. When the terms “game” or “gaming” are used in statutes, it is almost always in connection with words giving them the latter rensa. and in such case it is only by averring and proving the differentia that the prosecution can be sustained. But when “gaming” is spoken of in a statute as indictable, it is to be regarded as convertible with “gambling.” 2 Whart. Crim. Law, ( 14656.”Gaming” is properly the act or engagement of the players. If bystanders or other third persons put up a stake or wager among themselves, to go to one or the other according to the result of the game, this is more correctly termed “betting.. Gaming contracts. See WAGES. Gaming-houses. In criminal law. Houses in which gambling is carried on as the business of the occupants” and which are frequented by persons for that purpose. They are nuisances in the eyes of the law being detrimental to the public as they promote cheating and other corrupt practices.