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GAMING ACT 1845

GAMING ACT 1845 - LONG TITLE

An Act to amend the Law concerning Games and Wagers.{1}
[8th August 1845]
Preamble

S.1 rep. by SLR 1875

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 2
What shall be sufficient evidence that a house is a common gaming
house.

2. In default of other evidence proving any house or place to be
a common gaming house, it shall be sufficient, in support of the
allegation in any indictment or information that any house or place
is a common gaming house, to prove that such house or place is
kept or used for playing therein at any unlawful game, and that a
bank is kept there by one or more of the players exclusively of
the others, or that the chances of any game played therein are not
alike favourable to all the players, including among the players the
banker or other person by whom the game is managed, or against
whom the other players stake, play, or bet; and every such house
or place shall be deemed a common gaming house such as is contrary
to law and forbidden to be kept... by all... Acts containing any
provision against unlawful games or gaming houses.

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 3
Justices may by warrant authorize constables to enter houses
suspected of being common gaming houses, &c.

3. In every case... in which the justices of the peace in every
shire, and mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs and other head officers within
every city, town, and borough, within this realm, now have by law
authority to enter into any house, room, or place where unlawful
games shall be suspected to be holden, it shall be lawful for any
justice of the peace, upon complaint made before him on oath that
there is reason to suspect any house, room, or place to be kept
or used as a common gaming house, to give authority, by special
warrant under his hand, when in his discretion he shall think fit,
to any constable, to enter, with such assistance as may be found
necessary, into such house, room, or place, in like manner as might
have been done by such justices, mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, or
other head officers, and, if necessary, to use force for making
such entry, whether by breaking open doors or otherwise, and to
arrest, search, and bring before a justice of peace all such
persons found therein as might have been arrested therein by such
justice of peace had he been personally present; and all such
persons shall be dealt with according to law, as if they had been
arrested in such house, room, or place by the justice before whom
they shall be so brought; and any such warrant may be in the form
given in the first schedule annexed to this Act.

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 4
Penalties on gaming house keepers, &c. convicted before justices.

4. The owner or keeper of any common gaming house, and every
person having the care or management thereof, and also every banker,
croupier, and other person who shall act in any manner in
conducting the business of any common gaming house, shall, on
conviction thereof by his own confession, or by the oath of one or
more credible witnesses, before any two justices of the peace,... be
liable to forfeit and pay such penalty, not more than one hundred
pounds, as shall be adjudged by the justices before whom he shall
be convicted, or, in the discretion of the justices before whom he
shall be convicted, may be committed to [prison]... for any time
not more than six calendar months;...: Provided always, that nothing
herein contained shall prevent any proceeding by indictment against
the owner or keeper or other person having the care or management
of a common gaming house; but no person who shall have been
summarily convicted of any such offence shall be liable to be
proceeded against by indictment for the same offence.

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 5
Proof of playing for money, &c. not necessary.

5. It shall not be necessary, in support of any information for
gaming in, or suffering any games or gaming in, or for keeping or
using, or being concerned in the management or conduct of, a common
gaming house, to prove that any person found playing at any game
was playing for any money, wager, or stake.

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 8
What shall be deemed evidence of gaming.

8. Where any cards, dice, balls, counters, tables, or other
instruments of gaming used in playing any unlawful game shall be
found in any house, room, or place suspected to be used as a
common gaming house, and entered under a warrant or order issued
under the provisions of this Act, or about the person of any of
those who shall be found therein, it shall be evidence, until the
contrary be made to appear, that such house, room, or place is
used as a common gaming house, and that the persons found in the
room or place where such tables or instruments of gaming shall have
been found were playing therein, although no play was actually going
on in the presence of the constable entering the same under a
warrant or order issued under the provisions of this Act, or in
the presence of those persons by whom he shall be accompanied as
aforesaid; and it shall be lawful for the police magistrate...
before whom any person shall be taken by virtue of the warrant or
order to direct all such tables and instruments of gaming to be
forthwith destroyed.

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 9
Persons concerned in gaming and giving evidence, to be exempt from
prosecutions, &c.

9. Every person who shall have been concerned in any unlawful
gaming, and who shall be examined as a witness by or before any
police magistrate or justice of the peace, or on the trial of any
indictment or information against the owner or keeper or other
person having the care or management of any common gaming house,
touching such unlawful gaming, and who upon such examination shall
make true and faithful discovery to the best of his or her
knowledge of all things as to which he or she shall be so
examined, and shall thereupon receive from the magistrate or justice
of the peace or judge of the court by or before whom he or she
shall be so examined a certificate in writing to that effect, shall
be freed from all criminal prosecutions, and from all forfeitures,
punishments, and disabilities, to which he or she may have become
liable for anything done before that time in respect of such
unlawful gaming.

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 11
Places kept for public billiard tables to be licensed.

11. Every house, room, or place kept for public billiard playing,
or where a public billiard table or bagatelle board, or instrument
used in any game of the like kind, is kept, at which persons are
admitted, to play,... shall be licensed under this Act; and every
person keeping any such public billiard table or bagatelle board, or
instrument used in any game of the like kind, for public use,
without being duly licensed so to do, and not holding a
victualler's licence for the house or premises where such billiard
table, bagatelle board, or other instrument as aforesaid is kept or
used, and also every person licensed under this Act who shall not
during the continuance of such billiard licence put and keep up the
words "licensed for billiards," legibly printed in some conspicuous
place near the door and on the outside of the house specified in
the licence, shall be liable to be proceeded against as the keeper
of a common gaming house, and, besides any penalty or punishment to
which he may be liable if convicted of keeping a common gaming
house, shall, on conviction of keeping such unlicensed billiard
table, bagatelle board, or other instrument as aforesaid, by his own
confession, or by the oath of one or more credible witnesses,
before any police magistrate..., be liable to pay such penalty, not
more than ten pounds for every day on which such billiard table,
bagatelle board, or instrument as aforesaid shall be used, as shall
be adjudged by the magistrate ... before whom he shall be
convicted, or, in the discretion of the magistrate..., may be
committed to [prison]... for any time not more than one calendar
month;... but no person who shall have been summarily convicted of
any such offence shall be liable to be further proceeded against by
indictment for the same offence.

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 12
Penalties for offences against tenor of licences, as for offences
against tenor of licences granted under 1828 c.61.

12. Every person licensed under this Act, who shall be convicted
before a police magistrate... of any offence against the tenor of
the licence to him granted, shall be liable to the same penalties
and punishments, in the case of a first, second or third offence
respectively, to which persons licensed under the Alehouse Act, 1828,
are respectively liable on conviction of a first, second, or third
offence against the tenor of the licence granted to them under the
last-recited Act, or as near thereunto as the nature of the case
will allow; and all the provisions of the last-recited Act with
respect to convictions and penalties for offences against the
last-recited Act, and the proceedings for enforcing the same, and to
the expences of prosecution and penalties on witnesses for not
attending, and the recovery and application of penalties, and the
proceedings on appeals against convictions, and the award of costs
on appeals, and in actions against justices, constables, or other
persons for anything done in execution of the last-recited Act,
shall be deemed to apply, so far as they are applicable, to
convictions for offences against the tenor of the licences granted
under this Act, and to the proceedings consequent thereupon or
connected therewith, as if they were herein re-enacted.

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 13
When billiard playing shall not be allowed.

13. Every person keeping any public billiard table or bagatelle
board, or instrument used in any game of the like kind, whether he
be the owner of a victualler's licence or licensed under this Act,
who shall allow any person to play at such table, board, or
instrument after one and before eight of the clock in the morning
of any day, or at any time on Sundays, Christmas Day, or Good
Friday, or any day appointed to be kept as a public fast or
thanksgiving, and every person holding a victualler's licence who
shall allow any person to play at such table, board, or instrument
kept on the premises specified in such victualler's licence at any
time when such premises are not by law allowed to be open for the
sale of wine, spirits, or beer, or other fermented or distilled
liquors, shall be liable to the penalties herein provided in the
case of persons keeping such public billiard table, bagatelle board,
or instrument as aforesaid for public use without licence; and
during those times when play at such table, board, or instrument is
not allowed by this Act every house licensed under this Act, and
every billiard room in every house specified in any victualler's
licence, shall be closed, and the keeping of the same open, or
allowing any person to play therein or thereat, at any of the
times or on any of the days during which such play is not allowed
by this Act, shall be deemed in each case an offence against the
tenor of the licence of the person so offending.

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 14
Constables empowered to visit licensed houses.

14. It shall be lawful for all constables and officers of police
to enter into any house, room, or place where any public table or
board is kept for playing at billiards, bagatelle, or any game of
the like kind, when and so often as such constables and officers
shall think proper; and every person licensed... under this Act, who
shall refuse to admit or who shall not admit any such constable or
officer of police into such house, room, or place, shall, on
conviction thereof before a police magistrate..., be deemed guilty of
an offence against the tenor of his licence, whether the same be a
billiard table or a victualler's licence,....

Ss.15, 16 rep. by SLR 1875

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 17
Winning money, &c. by cheating at play, or by sharing stakes, or
by betting or wagering on the event of any game, to be punished.

17. Every person who shall, by any fraud or unlawful device or ill
practice in playing at or with cards, dice, tables, or other game,
or in bearing a part in the stakes, wagers, or adventures, or in
betting on the sides or hands of them that do play, or in
wagering on the event of any game, sport, pastime, or exercise, win
from any other person to himself, or any other or others, any sum
of money or valuable thing, shall

[(a)on conviction on indictment, be liable to imprisonment for a
term not exceeding two years; or

(b)on summary conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding two hundred pounds,
or to both.]

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 18
Contracts by way of gaming to be void, and wagers or sums
deposited with stakeholders not to be recoverable at law.

18. All contracts or agreements, whether by parole or in writing,
by way of gaming or wagering, shall be null and void; and no suit
shall be brought or maintained in any court of law or equity for
recovering any sum of money or valuable thing alleged to be won
upon any wager, or which shall have been deposited in the hands of
any person to abide the event on which any wager shall have been
made: Provided always, that this enactment shall not be deemed to
apply to any subscription or contribution, or agreement to subscribe
or contribute, for or towards any plate, prize, or sum of money to
be awarded to the winner or winners of any lawful game, sport,
pastime, or exercise.

S.19 rep. by SLR 1892. S.20 rep. by SLR (NI) 1954

GAMING ACT 1845 - SECT 21
Distress not unlawful for want of form, &c.

21. When any distress shall be made for any money to be levied by
virtue of the warrant of any justice under this Act, the distress
shall not be deemed unlawful, nor shall any party making the same
be deemed a trespasser, on account of any defect or want of form
in the information, summons, warrant of apprehension, conviction,
warrant of distress, or other proceeding relating thereto, nor shall
such party be deemed a trespasser from the beginning on account of
any irregularity which shall be afterwards committed by him, but all
persons aggrieved by such defect or irregularity may recover full
satisfaction for the special damage by an action on the case in
any of Her Majesty's courts of record.

Ss.22, 23 rep. by SLR 1894. S.25 rep. by SL(R) 1976. S.26 rep. by
SLR 1875

To the constable

Whereas it appears to me, J.P., one of the justices of our lady
the Queen assigned to keep the peace in the said county, by the
information on oath of A.B. of , in the county of , yeoman, that
the house [room or place] known as [here insert a description of
the house, room or place, by which it may be readily known and
found,] is kept and used as a common gaming house within the
meaning of the Gaming Act, 1845.

This is, therefore, in the name of our lady the Queen, to require
you, with such assistants as you may find necessary, to enter into
the said house [room or place], and, if necessary, to use force
for making such entry, whether by breaking open doors or otherwise,
and there diligently to search for all instruments of unlawful
gaming which may be therein, and to arrest, search, and bring
before me, or some other of the justices of our lady the Queen
assigned to keep the peace within the county of , as well the
keepers of the same as also the persons there haunting, resorting
and playing, to be dealt with according to law; and for so doing
this shall be your warrant.

Given under my hand and seal at <,in

the county of <,thisday

of

of

Second Schedule rep. by SLR 1893 (No.2)