Gaming

The act or practice of playing games for stakes or wagers; gambling; the playing at any game of hazard. An agreement between two or more persons to play together at a game of chance for a stake or wager which is to become the property of the winner, and to which ali contribute. In re Stewart (D. C.) 21 Fed. 398; People v. Todd, 51 Hun, 446, 4 N. Y. Supp. 25; State v. Shaw, 39 Minn. 153, 39 N. W. 305; State v. Morgan, 133 N. C. 743, 45 S. E. 1033. Gaming is an agreement between two or more to risk money on a contest or chance of any kind, where one must be loser aud the other gainer. Bell v. State, 5 Snced (Tenn.) 507. In general, the words "gaming" and "gambling," in statutes, are similar in meaning, and either one comprehends the idea that, by a bet, by chance, by some exercise of skill, or by the transpiring of some event unknown until it occurs, something of value is, as the conclusion of premises agreed, to be transferred from a loser to a winner, without which latter element there is no gaming or gambling. Bish. St. Crimes, § 858. "Gaming" implies, when used as describing a condition, an element of illegality ; and, when people are said to be "gaming," this generally supposes that the "games" have been games in which money comes to the victor or his backers. When the terms "game" or "gaming" are used in statutes, it is almost always in connection with words giving them the latter sense, and in such case it is only by averring and proving the differentia that the prosecution can be sustained. But when "gaming" is spoken of in a statute as indictable, it is to be regarded as convertible with "gambling." 2 Whart. Crim. Law, § 1465b. "Gaming" is properly the act or engagement of the players. If by-standers or other third persons put up a stake or wager among themselves, to go to one or the other according to the result of the game, this is more correctly termed "betting."

— Gaming contracts. See Wager.

— Gaming-houses. In criminal law. Houses la which gambling is carried on as the business of the occupants, and which are frequented by persons for that purpose. They are nuisances, in the eyes of the law, being detrimental to the public, as they promote cheating and other corrupt practices. 1 Russ. Crimes, 299; Rose. Crim. Ev. 663; People v. Jackson, 3 Denio (N. Yd 101, 45 Am. Dec. 449; Anderson v. State (Tex. App.) 12 S. W. 869; People v. Weithoff, 51 Mich. 203, 16 N. W. 442, 47 Am. Rep 557 ; Morgan v. State, 42 Tex. Cr. R. 422, 60 S. W. 763.