By 8 and 9 Vict., c. 74, to save newspaper proprietors the annoyance of being sued for inadvertently advertising lotteries contrary to the Act, it is enacted that all penalties shall go to the Crown, and proceedings only instituted in the Attorney-General’s name.
Indian law.
By the Indian Penal Code, 294A, it is made an offence to keep any “office or place” for drawing any lottery not authorised by Government, also to publish any proposal to pay money or deliver goods on an event to be determined by drawing, &c.
The English cases will in most cases be applicable to the construction of the term “lottery” in the Indian law. And as to what constitutes “a place,” reference should be made to a subsequent part of this work on betting houses.
Private house or club.
Of course a lottery is equally illegal when carried on in a private house or club as in a public place. The words of section 2, of 42 George III., put this beyond doubt. Thus, in Mearing v. Helling,[[287]] which was the case of an ordinary Derby sweep in a club, it was held that the drawer of the winner could not recover the stakes, the transaction being illegal.
Summary of the Statutes.
To sum up the provisions of the statutes, the following seem to be offences constituted:—
Keeping a lottery.
(1.) Setting up a lottery. This, obviously directed against anyone presiding over a gambling establishment in the same way as subsequent Acts, makes it illegal to keep a bank in a gaming house, or a betting table, as against all comers.