In Ireland.
By section 24 of the latter Act, Metropolis in Ireland means Dublin.
By section 7, special power is conferred on such superintendent or constables to search the whole house where he shall suspect there are instruments of gaming concealed, and any person found therein,[[400]] and to seize all tables and instruments of gaming which he shall so find.
By section 8, magistrates before whom persons are brought, having been arrested in a gaming house, may order all such tables and instruments of gaming to be destroyed.
Out of the Metropolis.
In the case of houses out of the Metropolis, justices of the peace may, on information on oath that there is reason to suspect any house is used as a gaming house, issue a warrant in the form given in the schedule to the Act to empower officers to enter such house by force, and arrest all persons found therein. This section does not empower constables to seize or destroy instruments of gaming. |Form of warrant.| An important point to notice about the form of the warrant is that it is directed only against a particular house, the individuals who may be arrested need not be named or described. This is an important departure from ordinary procedure, as generally a warrant for an arrest is bad if the name of the person to be arrested or some description of him do not appear on the face of the warrant, as was decided in the “general warrant” cases in George III.’s reign.
By section 5 it is provided that it shall not be necessary in support of any information, for keeping a gaming house, to prove that persons found playing therein were playing for money or stakes.[[401]]
The power of ordering the destruction of instruments of gaming conferred by section 8 seems to apply out of the Metropolis. The words are “warrant or order.”
It does not appear that police magistrates in the Metropolis have the power of issuing warrants in the form above described, as the section expressly excludes the metropolitan district.
N.B.—In any questions arising under this Act, reference should be made to the cases which are noted under the corresponding portions of the Betting House Act, as the wording of the two statutes is in many cases similar.