The questions and cases which have arisen and been decided under the Act of 1853, may be grouped under the following heads:—
I. What is a “place”?
II. Persons liable.
III. What kind of betting is within the Act.
What is a “place”?
I. The meaning of the term “place,” which is used in the Acts directed against gaming and betting houses, as in fact it is in all the previous statutes on the subject of houses and “places” kept for the purposes of gaming or playing unlawful games, has undergone a great deal of discussion. It will be remembered that the Statute 4, George IV., c. 60, declared the term “place” as used in previous statutes, particularly the Lottery Acts, to mean “a place in or out of enclosed premises, whether on land or water.” Even if this statute cannot be regarded strictly as interpretative of all statutes, it may at any rate be a guide to the meaning of the term in other statutes.
In Doggett v. Catterns[[353]] the action was brought to recover money deposited with the defendant on a bet, under s. 5 of the Act (given in full above). The defendant was in the habit of resorting to Hyde Park and keeping a betting table. Held, that though it was not necessary that a “place” should be under cover, still a spot in a public park which could not have an owner or occupier, would not come within the section. Per Pollock, C. B., on the ground that a place to be within the Act must be capable of having an owner or occupier. Per Bramwell, on the ground that it was not an ascertained place. Per Lush, J., in Eastwood v. Miller,[[354]] “the person there was not an occupier of the place, and he had no business to use it for that purpose.” In the course of the arguments, a remark was made by Bramwell, B., that the table occupied by the defendant could not be a common gaming house within section 2. This seems to suggest that nothing could be a place within the Act unless it could by a fair construction be considered a gaming house.
The case of Morley v. Greenhalge[[355]] was quoted in Lush, J., in Eastwood v. Miller,[[356]] as depending on the same principles as Doggett v. Catterns. It was held that a person could not be convicted of keeping, using, or acting in the management of any place for the purpose of cock-fighting, or of suffering or permitting it to be so used (contrary to 12 & 13 Vict., c. 92, section 3) who resorted to a quarry of which he was not the owner or occupier, for the purpose of aiding in a cock-fight. The owner of the quarry had nothing to do with the men being there, and they had no business there. It seems that in Eastwood v. Miller the Court took a different view of the ratio of the decision in Doggett v. Catterns to that taken by the judges in Bows v. Fenwick,[[357]] the former looked upon it as decided on the ground that it was a public place, and the defendant had no business to use it for betting purposes. The latter, rejecting the argument based on the fact that a man “might be ordered to move on,” distinguished Doggett v. Catterns, as will be seen, on the ground that no fixed place was used.
In Shaw v. Morley[[358]] there was a space railed off near the enclosure of a racecourse, about 44 yards by 2. It was let out to a tenant who paid rent for it, and by him divided into partitions; in each partition there was a wooden structure, 5 feet in height, fronting both ways, in which betting transactions were conducted, but which had no roof. |Betting out of towns.| It was contended for the defendant that these structures were not offices or places within the Act, which was directed against betting in towns, and the words “house” or “place” must be ejusdem generis with the words “house” or “room.” Held, that the Act was wide enough to cover betting out of towns; that this was a place and an office within the Acts; and that defendant was conducting a business within section 3. Per Kelly, C.B.: “It is no matter whether there is a roof or none, or whether the structure is moveable or fastened to the earth.” Per Martin, B.: “The structure described was both an office and a place. |Moveable offices.| What it most resembles is those moveable offices on wheels, in which merchants conduct their business of lading and unlading ships in the docks of Liverpool, and I have no doubt that such a structure would be an office or a place within the meaning of the Act. But this was more, it was a fixed place.”
This case decides three points—(1) That the Act is wide enough to reach betting in rural places; (2) That an uncovered as well as a covered spot may be a place within the Acts; (3) Any locomotive structure may also be a place. But the judgment of Grove, J., in Galloway v. Maries (post) should be compared with this.