SKILL OR CHANCE?

Hokitika Guardian, 29 June 1926, Page 4

SKILL OR CHANCE?

“BOX BALL” AND “SKI ALLEY.” AUCKLAND 1 , June 25. “It- seems to me that the games have just that degree of skill tint takes them out of the Act,” said Ah' J. AY. Poynton, S.AL, in the Police Court, when he dismissed charges brought by the police against Maurice Darling. Frank do Lyall and James Al’Corkiiulale, showmen, -who had stalls at tho Winter Show, the three being (barged with playing in a public place me of chance known as “Box Ball,” and Al.’Cork indale being further charged with playing “Ski Alley, annllier game of chance. Tho defence was that the games were of skill and not of chance.

After describing in detail the manner in which the games were played, the Afagistrntc continued: —“The law as to such games is an unsatisfactory one. A lot of decisions rule that any game with skill in it, howerore small, is not a game of chance, and another equally weighty that even it there is hkill in the game. If the element of (bailee enters largely into it, it is rot a game of skill, ft both these games the skill to be acquired is small. A tall man with long arms in playing box ball may reach within a few inches of the edge of the holes, and with a little practice should be able to drop llq. ball into any desired pocket, while a short person or child is at a serious disadvantage in this respect. His eyes, too, being low, be would have a difficulty in seeing the numbers of the pockets. Tn ‘Ski Alley’ there is also very little skill. At the top of the table where tho ball drops over the edge of the incline into the pockets of the green baize is thicker than in the other parts of the table, and this tends Lu force the ball back. In such a case another throw of a ball is granted. A skilled player would play with just sufficient force to send the. ball over the edge, and with practice would acquire a. certain skill in placing the balls into selected Holes, but not much. If the law is to he altered, and it certainly should be, in the interests of our children, tho test ought to be not as at present. ‘ls there ,any skill in the game if played by practised plavrrs?’ but ‘ls it a. gallic of chance to those who indulge in it, and from whose pockets the funds are extracted to keep it going?” Tho Alagistrate concluded with the words of Air Justice Edwards regarding u ease which lie tried: “ft is a species of amusement designed to extract small sums of money from the pockets of the foolish, principally the young and foolish, who are visitors to racecourses and other places of public amusement. I t does more,, than empty their pockets, it inoculates such foolish persons and children with the fever of gambling, a vice already too prevalent in the communitv.”