Home
Casino Gambling in history
Gambling news
Casino Strategy & Tips
The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz
I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII | XIV
The current jackpot at Slotland is
CHAPTER
XIV. page 17
The laws relating to horse-racing have undergone curious
revisions and interpretations. `The law of George II.'s reign,
declaring horse-racing to be good, as tending to promote the
breed of fine horses, exempted horse-races from the list of
unlawful games, provided that the sum of money run for or the
value of the prize should be fifty pounds and upwards, that
certain weights only might be used, and that no owner should run
more than one horse for the same prize, under pain of forfeiting
all horses except the first. Newmarket, and Black Hambledon in
Yorkshire, are the only places licensed for races in this Act,
which, however, was also construed to legalize any race at any
place whatever, so long as the stakes were worth fifty pounds and
upwards, and the weights were of the regulated standard. An
Act passed five years afterwards removed the restrictions as to
the weights, and declared that any one anywhere might start a
horse-race with any weights, so long as the stakes were fifty
pounds or more. The provision for the forfeiture of all horses
but one belonging to one owner and running in the same race was
overlooked or forgotten, and owners with perfect impunity ran
their horses, as many as they pleased, in the same race. In
1839, however, informations were laid against certain owners,
whose horses were claimed as forfeits; and then everybody woke up
to the fact that this curious clause of the Act of George II. was
still unrepealed.