■ GAMES Oi1 ceANOB.'

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 266, 13 October 1883, Page 2

■ GAMES Oi 1 ceANOB.'

Aooobding to 'a recent decision byMr Justice. .Johnston, games at cards, whether for money or not, are not debarred m licensed houses under the present Licensing XctrTKelj^tt'elt»n iOKtmes'thus explains the alteration 1 of the law m this respect :— -"In the old j Licencing Act publickns were made liable to a penalty for allowing 'gam*ing or unlawful games 'm their houses ; ; the words used being copied, directly from an English Act. In the Licensing A ; ct of 1881 ; the word gaming was omitted, and the penalty attached only to, permitting an unlawful game to be played m a puo!ic-hotise '''How 'whiit is an 'un'aw£ul',,gamer* Voek this expression apply; ta any garae of cards ; for which money is staked 1 Certainly not. The Courts m England have decided directly the other way. They , have held that the game is not unlaw--; fiii'unless it is fraudulently jplayed' or \ unless it has been expressly declared uniawful by statute. Various English statutes; from 'the reign of Queen Anne , downwards/ have bfeeni thufe /branded I by enactment. Among them are old . ■ ; .--' '; .- iV V- !.••■•■(■. .. ■-. <-?:y}ll '•

friends, like . faro „a nd the famous bassett, synonymous gambling m the comedies of the eighteenth century. vStrange games are ajso. mentioned, such a«|rowley^pwley^«^u^a€j-dart,' and tersfc. But .euchre^ lj>eing^istinctly . JnYetition of thenineteenth^century, l^is naturally escaped tb% leffe^nsure .of the Georgian era. 'Mr J.dstice Johnston, therefore, considered that it ! could not be <saUed.an unla-vKful^ganie!''