Stoutamire v. Pratt’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The machine pays the player nothing whatever in merchandise, money, or tokens, the only return for his investment being amusement, and the only reward for his skill being an extra game free if he makes a score of 160 or higher. Nothing whatever is done by the machine except the registering of the score and, we think, the amount of the score depends entirely on the skill of the player. The law denouncing slot machines, defines them as devices so adapted that “as a result of the insertion” of a coin they are “caused to operate or may be operated, and by reason of any element of chance or of other outcome of such operation unpredictable by him, the user may receive or become entitled to receive * * * thing of value” or anything which may be exchanged for something of value, such as money or merchandise, “or the user may secure additional * * * rights” to play, “even though (the machine) may, in addition to any element of chance or unpredictable outcome” deliver merchandise or entertainment. 849.16, Florida Statutes 1941, and F.'S.A. We .have italicized the characteristics which we think differentiate an innocent machine, vending amusement or entertainment, from a guilty one affording a means of gambling. These features also were uppermost in the mind of the chancellor. After reciting that the contraption now involved was constructed “as nearly as practicable to máke it conform to the mechanics of conventional bowling and to render it a game of skill alone,” he, nonetheless, felt”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 12 Fla. Supp. 108 - State v. Lano