Wager

A contract by which two or more agree that a certain sum of money or other thing shall be paid or delivered to one of them, on the happening or not happening of an uncertain event; at common law not invalid unless upon a subject illegal, contrary to public policy, good morals, the peace of society, or the interests of third persons. Wager policy: a policy without any real interest in the assured to support it; a policy in which the assured has no interest In old English law. Wager of battel: the giving of a gage or pledge to try a cause by battel, or single combat. Wager of law: the giving of gage or sureties by a defendant in an action of debt, that at a certain day assigned he would make his law, — would take an oath in open court that he did not owe the debt, and bring eleven neigh- ^ bors, called compurgators, who would make oath that they believed that he said the truth.