With respect to this statute against betting houses the following are the offences specified:—
Summary of offences.
(1.) Being the owner or occupier of a house or place kept or used (a) for the purpose of betting with persons resorting thereto (b) for the purpose of receiving money on deposit in respect of bets.
(2.) Using any such house for such purposes or either of them or permitting such user.
(3.) Having the care and management or assisting in the business of any such house.
The above persons are each liable to a penalty of £100 or six months’ imprisonment. They are, in addition, liable to be indicted for a nuisance, seeing that such houses are declared to be, by section 1, common nuisances; by section 2, gaming houses within 8 & 9 Vict., c. 109.
Receiving deposits.
(4.) By section 4, all the above persons (i.e., the owner or occupier of such house or place, or any person acting on his behalf, or any person having the care or management or assisting in conducting the business) are liable to a penalty of £50 or three months for receiving money or other valuable thing as a deposit on a bet[[352]] and by section 5 the depositor may recover the money deposited as money paid to his use. |Exception in favour of prize.| But section 6 contains an exception in favour of any stakes or deposit to be paid to a winner of a race, or the owner of a horse that is running. It is not very easy to see what the practical effect is of providing that betting houses shall come within the meaning of common gaming houses in 8 & 9 Vict., c. 109; |? Effect of sec. 2.| the enactments in section 2 of the latter Act, are such as could not apply to a house merely kept for betting purposes, while 16 & 17 Vict. itself declares betting houses to be common nuisances, inflicts a specific penalty for keeping them, and contains provisions for entering and searching them.
(5.) Another species of offence prohibited by this Act is advertising houses or places as being opened or used for the particular kind of betting prohibited by the Act. This is by virtue of section 7, the provisions of which, as will appear more fully hereafter, are supplemented by a later statute, 37 Vict., c. 15.
Cases under the Betting House Act. Secs. 1 and 3.