113 Mass. 193 | Mass. | 1873
The word "gamble,” as defined by the lexicographers, means “ to game or play for money.” In common parlance, a gambler is one who follows or practises games of chance or skill, with the expectation and purpose of thereby winning money or other property. To say of a man that he keeps a gambling place, or a gambling den, imputes that he keeps a place at which gambling is practised, and includes the idea that the place is resorted to for that purpose. The charge against the plaintiff is, among other things, that “ he gets his money easy, he keeps a gambling, place,” — a form of expression which indicates that he has the habit of gaming for money, at his place, and with other persons, resorting there. As all such gaming is illegal, a charge of that kind conveys a criminal imputation. To call the place a “ gambling hell ” is a more intense and emphatic mode of expressing the same idea. Indeed that expression has, by the prac