LUDOVICI v. NICHOLAS APPU

LUDOVICI v. NICHOLAS APPU.

M. C., Colombo, 1,4,35.

Gaming Ordinance, No. 17 of 1889-Common gaming house-Place to which the public have access-Evidence of keeping or using-Meaning of " include " in a definition clause.

A common gaming house is a house in which a large number of persons are invited habitually to congregate for the purpose of gaming. It makes no difference that the house was not open to all persons who might be desirous of using the same.

It is a house kept or used for playing therein any game of chance or any mixed game of chance and skill, in which (1) a bank is kept by one or more of the players, exclusively of the others, or (2) in which any game is played the chances of which are not alike favorable to all the players, including among the players the bankers or other persons by whom the game is managed, or against whom the other players stake, play, or bet.

Where twenty or thirty persons belonging to different nationalities assembled in a house day after day for the purpose of gambling, and the proprietor of the house collected commission from such persons every time the dice were thrown, held it was a common gaming house.

Where a man, in such a house, held a croupier's rake and directed by it the dice box holder to throw the dice, and then raked in the commission paid by the players, held this was sufficient evidence of assisting in the management of the gaming house.

Jayawardana v. Thomas (1 N. L. R. 216) disapproved.

The word " include " in a definition clause means " has the moaning given to the word in the Ordinance in addition to its popular meaning;"

THE accused in this case was charged with having at No. 68, Messenger street, assisted in the management of a place kept and used as a common gaming place, and thereby having committed an offence punishable under section 5, sub-section (c), of the Ordinance No. 17 of 1889.

As regards the place being a common gaming place, the complainant, an Inspector of Police, deposed that he went with the warrant of the Police Magistrate to search premises No. 68 in Messenger street, and found the big gate and the premises closed and barred from inside: " The small door was not ajar, it could admit one man at a time. It was also closed. We entered and saw about thirty men gaming in one of the rooms. We arrested twenty, and about ten escaped, I saw in the room a black cloth spread on the floor, a brass box or till with two compartments, and two sticks on the lid which was looked with Chubb's patent lock. It contained money, Rs. 22. There was also a sum of money on the floor (Rs. 34.89) and a leather rattle or dice box and a stick, a croupier's stick, called by the natives thong stick." O'Dowd, Police Sergeant, deposed:-" I have watched these premises before, and have seen from time to time people of different nationalities going in and out. I have often heard them talking while coming out as to their winnings and losses. On the present occasion I saw about thirty people seated in a circle inside. As soon as we entered some of the people pushed me and escaped. We arrested twenty." William Perera, a fruit-seller, deposed that " he had been to house No. 68 for gambling nine or ten times, in the night as well as in the day, and saw gambling going on whenever he went. He received no notice of gambling being carried on any particular day. On the day of the arrest he was with the gamblers. And Pabliano Naide, a watcher on the premises No. 68, deposed:-" At the entrance there is one large gate and a small door in the middle of it. The large gate is always bolted. By the small door inside there is a bench, and this door is also closed. When the watcher outside tells me to open the little door I do so, and people enter one by one, or by twos, at a time. I have also gambled about fifteen times."

As to the defendant assisting in the management of this common gaming place, it was proved that he was in the circle of the ga

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