25 Del. 453 | New York Court of General Session of the Peace | 1911
delivering the opinion of the court:
We assume, for the present motion, that the law under which this indictment was found is that which appears on page 396 of the Revised Code, being Chapter 33, Volume 12, of the Laws of Delaware, and which in part reads as follows:
“ If any person shall * * * sell or dispose of, * * *
Counsel for the prisoner have moved the court that the jury be instructed to return a verdict of not guilty, upon two grounds; which, as we understand them, are as follows:
Entertaining that view, we have ruled in certain evidence, and for the same reason we decline to grant the motion upon the first ground.
The “happening of a contingency in the nature of a lottery,” as contemplated by the statute and applied to the particular facts of this case, is not the number of the runs made by different baseball clubs, which uncertainty may or may not be a matter of chance within the meaning of the law, but the contingency here, into which enters the element of chance and which partakes of the nature of a lottery, is the double hazard of the selection of a combination of numbers which are designated by a drawing to be representative of certain clubs, the winnings upon which are determined by baseball scores. The prize is given not to him who may forecast the results of the games, either in victories or in runs
There is but one highest total of runs made by six clubs regardless of the number of runs made and that highest number of runs is the factor that determines who wins on the combinations of numbers selected by the members 'of the pool. As a method of determining the winner of all who participated in the game, it has no advantage over nor is it essentially different from the ordinary method of having a little girl or a man of position draw the decisive or determining number from a hat. We are of opinion that the scheme disclosed by the evidence constitutes a lottery within the meaning of the law and therefore decline to grant the motion that the jury be instructed to acquit the prisoner.
The defendant thereupon entered a plea of guilty and was paroled upon his own recognizance.