35 N.Y.S. 884 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1894
The two recent decisions in civil cases cited on the argument scarcely apply. The defendant is accused of “ contriving, proposing and maintaining a lottery,” a crimé defined in section 325 of the Penal Code. The undisputed facts are as follows: The defendant is the president of the Brooklyn Jockey Club, an association formed under the laws of this state for the incorporation of associations for improving the breed of horses, and located in the city of Brooklyn where its grounds are. Acting for the association the defendant advertised and organized a horse' race to be run on the association’s grounds on May 15, 1894. The race was to be open to all thoroughbred horses three years old and upwards; but in order to run, horses had to be entered on the association’s books. An entry fee of $250 was charged, part of which was to be remitted in the' case of horses withdrawn before the race. The race was to be for" a stake of $25,000, of which $18,000 was to go the winner, $5,000 to the second horse and $2,000 to the third. This stake was to be made up by the association adding to the total of the entry moneys a sum sufficient for that purpose. This is what the complainant calls a. lottery. There is no foundation for his contention. It is not a lottery either in common speech or within legal
There can be no question as to what a lottery is under the-laws of this state. Our statutes concerning lotteries constitute from an early beginning a distinct line of legislation. The subject has a legal literature all its own. The first statute' concerning lotteries was the colonial one of 1721. It prohibited under penalties all lotteries not licensed by the government. After the independence, namely, in 1783,. a similar-act, more stringent and penal, was passed. It forbade private; lotteries,- and gave the state a monopoly of the business. From, that time down to the making of the State Constitution of" 1821 there were many bills introduced into the legislature, no-less than forty-four of which became acts, for the establishment and management of lotteries for the raising of public revenue. As these acts show, money was thus raised for opening and improving roads, for improving the navigation of the, Hudson river, for orphan asylums, boards of health, and the like. Lotteries were favorite means of raising money for educational purposes, and the title, “ An act instituting a lottery for the promotion of literature,” did not look strange then,, though it does now. In 1814 a lottery act for that object was-preceded by the preamble, “ Whereas, well regulated seminaries of learning are of immense importance to every country, and tend, especially by the diffusion of science and the promotion of morals, to defend and perpetuate the liberties., of a.
Prisoner discharged.