Gambling Contracts Deemed Void
This section read:
All contracts or agreements, whether by parole or in writing, by way of gaming or wagering, shall be null and void; and no suit shall be brought or maintained in any court of law and equity for recovering any sum of money or valuable thing alleged to be won upon any wager, or which shall have been deposited in the hands of any person to abide the event on which any wager shall have been made: Provided always, that this enactment shall not be deemed to apply to any subscription or contribution, or agreement to subscribe or contribute, for or towards any plate, prize, or sum of money to be awarded to the winner or winners of any lawful game, sport, pastime, or exercise.
This section was extended by the Gaming Act 1892.
However, a bet on the Horserace Totalisator Board, also known as The Tote, did not fall within the scope of the Act.
Further, by the 1980s, it was feared that complex commercial risk management instruments and contracts, such as derivatives could fall foul of the Act. Provision was made that a contract would not be void if at least one of the parties entered into it for legitimate business purposes. The exemption is now found in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 s 412.
Read more about this topic: Gaming Act 1845, Section 18
Famous quotes containing the words gambling, contracts, deemed and/or void:
“Someone once asked me why women don’t gamble as much as men do, and I gave the common-sensical reply that we don’t have as much money. That was a true but incomplete answer. In fact, women’s total instinct for gambling is satisfied by marriage.”
—Gloria Steinem (b. 1934)
“Bankers, nepotists, contracts and talkies: on four fingers one may count the leeches which have sucked a young and vigorous industry into paresis.”
—Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)
“For truly it is to be noted, that children’s plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Some say existence like a Pirouot
And Pirouette, forever in one place,
Stands still and dances, but it runs away;
It seriously, sadly, runs away
To fill the abyss’s void with emptiness.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)