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BETTING ACT 1853

BETTING ACT 1853 - LONG TITLE

An Act for the Suppression of Betting Houses.{1}
[20th August 1853]
Preamble rep. by SLR 1892

BETTING ACT 1853 - SECT 1
No house, &c. to be kept for purpose of owner or occupier betting
with other persons.

1. No house, office, room, or other place shall be opened, kept,
or used for the purpose of the owner, occupier, or keeper thereof,
or any person using the same, or any person procured or employed
by or acting for or on behalf of such owner, occupier, or keeper,
or person using the same, or of any person having the care or
management or in any manner conducting the business thereof betting
with persons resorting thereto; or for the purpose of any money or
valuable thing being received by or on behalf of such owner,
occupier, keeper, or person as aforesaid as or for the consideration
for any assurance, undertaking, promise, or agreement, express or
implied, to pay or give thereafter any money or valuable thing on
any event or contingency of or relating to any horse race, or
other race, fight, game, sport, or exercise, or as or for the
consideration for securing the paying or giving by some other person
of any money or valuable thing on any such event or contingency as
aforesaid; and every house, office, room, or other place opened,
kept, or used for the purposes aforesaid, or any of them, is
hereby declared to be a common nuisance and contrary to law.

BETTING ACT 1853 - SECT 2
Betting houses to be gaming houses.

2. Every house, room, office, or place opened, kept, or used for
the purposes aforesaid, or any of them, shall be taken and deemed
to be a common gaming house within the meaning of the Gaming Act,
1845.

BETTING ACT 1853 - SECT 3
Penalty on owner or occupier of betting house.

3. Any person who being the owner or occupier of any house,
office, room, or other place, or a person using the same, shall
open, keep, or use the same for the purposes herein-before
mentioned, or either of them; and any person who being the owner
or occupier of any house, room, office, or other place, shall
knowingly and wilfully permit the same to be opened, kept, or used
by any other person for the purposes aforesaid, or either of them;
and any person having the care or management of or in any manner
assisting in conducting the business of any house, office, room, or
place, opened, kept, or used for the purposes aforesaid, or either
of them; shall, on summary conviction thereof before any two
justices of the peace, be liable to forfeit and pay such penalty,
not exceeding one hundred pounds, as shall be adjudged by such
justices, and may be further adjudged by such justices to pay such
costs attending such conviction as to the said justices shall seem
reasonable, and on the nonpayment of such penalty and costs, or in
the first instance, if to the said justices it shall seem fit, may
be committed to [prison]... for any time not exceeding six calendar
months.

BETTING ACT 1853 - SECT 4
Penalty on persons receiving money on condition of paying money on
event of any bet.

4. Any person, being the owner or occupier of any house, office,
room, or place, opened, kept, or used for the purposes aforesaid,
or either of them, or any person acting for or on behalf of any
such owner or occupier, or any person having the care or management
or in any manner assisting in conducting the business thereof, who
shall receive, directly or indirectly, any money or valuable thing
as a deposit on any bet on condition of paying any sum of money
or other valuable thing on the happening of any event or
contingency of or relating to a horse race or any other race, or
any fight, game, sport, or exercise, or as or for the consideration
for any assurance, undertaking, promise, or agreement, express or
implied, to pay or give thereafter any money or valuable thing on
any such event or contingency, and any person giving any
acknowledgment, note, security, or draft, on the receipt of any
money or valuable thing so paid or given as aforesaid, purporting
or intended to entitle the bearer or any other person to receive
any money or valuable thing on the happening of any such event or
contingency as aforesaid, shall, upon summary conviction thereof
before two justices of the peace, forfeit and pay such penalty, not
exceeding fifty pounds, as shall be adjudged by such justices, and
may be further adjudged by such justices to pay such costs
attending such conviction as to the said justices shall seem
reasonable, and on the nonpayment of such penalty and costs, or in
the first instance, if to such justices, it shall seem fit, may be
committed to [prison]... for any time not exceeding three calendar
months.

BETTING ACT 1853 - SECT 5
Money so received may be recovered from the persons receiving the
same.

5. Any money or valuable thing received by any such person
aforesaid as a deposit on any bet, or as or for the consideration
for any such assurance, undertaking, promise, or agreement as
aforesaid, shall be deemed to have been received to or for the use
of the person from whom the same was received; and such money or
valuable thing, or the value thereof, may be recovered accordingly,
with full costs of suit, in any court of competent jurisdiction.

BETTING ACT 1853 - SECT 6
This Act not to extend to stakes due to winner of a race, &c.

6. Provided always, that nothing in this Act contained shall extend
to any person receiving or holding any money or valuable thing by
way of stakes or deposit to be paid to the winner of any race,
or lawful sport, game, or exercise, or to the owner of any horse
engaged in any race.

BETTING ACT 1853 - SECT 7
Penalty on persons exhibiting placards or advertising betting houses.

7. Any person exhibiting or publishing or causing to be exhibited
or published any placard, handbill, card, writing, sign, or
advertisement, whereby it shall be made to appear that any house,
office, room, or place is opened, kept, or used for the purpose of
making bets or wagers, in manner aforesaid, or for the purpose of
exhibiting lists for betting, or with intent to induce any person
to resort to such house, office, room, or place for the purpose of
making bets or wagers, in manner aforesaid, or any person who, on
behalf of the owner or occupier of any such house, office, room,
or place, or person using the same, shall invite other persons to
resort thereto for the purpose of making bets or wagers, in manner
aforesaid, shall, upon summary conviction thereof before two justices
of the peace, forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding thirty pounds,
and may be further adjudged by such justices to pay such costs
attending such conviction as to the said justices shall seem
reasonable, and on the nonpayment of such penalty and costs, or in
the first instance, if to such justices it shall seem fit, may be
committed to [prison]... for any time not exceeding two calendar
months.

S.8 rep. by SLR 1980. S.9 rep. by 1954 c.9 (NI) s.29 sch.7

BETTING ACT 1853 - SECT 10
On neglect to prosecute any summons, justices may authorize some
other person to proceed.

10. In case any person who shall have laid any complaint or
information in respect of any offence against this Act shall not
appear at the time at which the defendant may have been summoned
to appear, or at any time to which the hearing of the summons may
have been adjourned, or, in the opinion of any justices having
authority to adjudicate with respect to the offence charged in such
information or complaint as aforesaid, shall otherwise have neglected
to proceed upon or prosecute such information or complaint with due
diligence, it shall be lawful for such justices to authorize any
other person to proceed on such summons instead of the person to
whom the same may have been granted, or, if such justices think
fit, to dismiss the summons already granted, and authorize any
person to take out a fresh summons in respect of the offence
charged in such information or complaint, in like manner as if the
previous summons had not been granted.

BETTING ACT 1853 - SECT 11
Justices may authorize search of suspected houses.

11. It shall be lawful for any justice of the peace, upon
complaint made before him on oath that there is reason to suspect
any house, office, room, or place to be kept or used as a betting
house or office, contrary to this Act, to give authority by special
warrant under his hand, when in his discretion he shall think fit,
to any constable or police officer to enter, with such assistance
as may be found necessary, into such house, office, room, or place,
and, if necessary, to use force for making such entry, whether by
breaking open doors or otherwise and to arrest, search, and bring
before a justice of the peace all such persons found therein, and
to seize all lists, cards, or other documents relating to racing or
betting found in such house or premises; and any such warrant may
be according to the form given in the first schedule annexed to
the Gaming Act, 1845.

S.13 rep. by SLR (NI) 1954. S.14 rep. by SL(R) 1976. S.15 rep. by
SLR 1980. Ss.16, 17 rep. by SLR 1894. S.19 rep. by SLR 1892