16 & 17 Vict., c. 119, sec. 7.
Section 7 enacts that “any person exhibiting, publishing, or causing to be exhibited or published, any placard, handbill, card, writing, sign or advertisement, that any house, office, room or place is kept or used for the purpose of making bets or wagers in manner aforesaid, or for the purpose of exhibiting lists for betting, or for the purpose of inducing any person to resort to such house, &c., for the purpose of making bets, or any person who on behalf of the owner or occupier of such house, &c., who shall invite other persons to resort thereto for the purpose of betting, shall be liable to a penalty of £50 or two months’ imprisonment.”
What persons are forbidden by this section to advertise is: (1) That a house or place is kept for the kind of betting mentioned in a former part of the Act, i.e., Section 1. So that to understand what kind of betting it is that must not be advertised, reference must be made to the cases that have been decided thereon. |Betting lists.| (2) People must not advertise their houses as exhibiting betting lists—that is, people may keep lists of races, current odds, &c., but not advertise the fact. This should be borne in mind by hotel and club proprietors, and all persons whose premises are furnished by means of the “tape” with the latest information as to races. Betting lists may be seized by officers entering premises by virtue of section 11 of 16 & 17 Vict., which speaks of lists and “all documents relating to betting,” and also they are expressly mentioned in section 12 of the same Act, which treats of the powers of the Metropolitan Police.
Act did not extend to Scotland.
By section 20, Scotland is expressly excluded from the provisions of the Act, consequently not only was that country inundated with members of the betting fraternity who could not carry on their business in this country, but seeing that betting houses in Scotland were not illegal, Section 7 did not make advertisements of such places illegal. Consequently, many of the daily papers made large sums by inserting such advertisements, which, no doubt, acted as a powerful incentive to certain members of the community to invest their money across the border. As Mr. Anderson observed, in bringing his Bill before the House of Commons,[[396]] that England had acted towards Scotland like the humane gardener towards his neighbour by sending over to him all his vermin. The Act which is known as Anderson’s Act, 37 Vict., c. 15, is described as “an Act to be construed as one with the principal Act of 1853 and to be cited together as the Betting Acts.”
Section 20 of the principal Act is repealed, thus extending that Act to Scotland.
By section 3, when any letter, telegram, circular, placard, handbill, card or advertisement is sent, exhibited or published,
(1.) Whereby it is made to appear that any person, either in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, will, on application, give information or advice for the purpose of, or with respect to, any bet or wager on any such event or contingency as is mentioned in the principal Act; or will make on behalf of any other person any such bet or wager as is mentioned in the principal Act; or
(2.) With intent to induce any person to apply to any house, office, room or place, or to any person with the view of obtaining any information or advice for the purpose of any such bet or wager, or with respect to any such event or contingency as is mentioned in the principal Act; or
(3.) Inviting any person to make or take any share in or in connection with any such bet or wager.