WHEN EUCHRE IS ILLEGAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 311, 23 March 1928, Page 1

WHEN EUCHRE IS ILLEGAL

MINISTERIAL STATEMENT PROFIT AND GAMING HOUSES Press Association. WELLINGTON, Thursday. In view of the public interest which has been aroused by a recent Supreme Court decision in Christchurch regarding euchre tournaments, the following statement is made by the AttorneyGeneral and Minister of Justice, the Hon. F. J. Rolleston: “The facts on which the recent decision was based were that the party prosecuted liad invited the public, by advertisement, to attend at certain premises known as the Sydenham Football Hall for the purpose of playing progressive euchre. A charge of 2s 6d was made for admission, and cash prizes up to £lO were offered to the winners of the tournament. The tournament was run purely for the purpose of private gain. v On these facts the Court, following decisions on exactly the same law which is in force in England, held that the premises were what is called in law a common gaming house, in breach of the provisions of the Gaming Act. “The essential points in this case were that an admission fee was charged for entries in a euchre tournament, for the purpose of winning a prize, and that prizes of value, that is, money, were offered to the winners of the tournament. “I have received many letters on this subject from different parts of the country. Some of them were evidently written on the assumption that the game of euchre had been declared an unlawful game. This is not so. The game becomes unlawful only if play in such circumstances as to constitute premises where it is played a common gaming house. “In the prosecutions which have recently come before the Courts, five out of six were cases in which tournaments were being conducted as a matter of business b\% private individuals, purely for purposes of private gain, and these cases differed in no way from those of ‘roll down’ or other similar prosecutions.”