I need not again reiterate my reasons for holding that the Court has jurisdiction in the matter, and on the second point I am of the same opinion as I held in the case of Rex (S.M.P.) v. Haimovitch, decided as long ago as January, 1909, that after the words "provisions of the bylaw,'"' the words "of any condition in. any liceness issued under the must be read into the by-To decide otherwise seems to me to make any person who takes out a licence under by-law 34 immune from any prosecution: e.g:, any reasonable and necessary conditions can be made onthe issue of a licence to him which he can break or decline to" carry out at his own sweet will—rather an impossible state of affairs. It is much to be regretted that the change in the wording of the by-law was not made after the case (subra) in 1909.
As the two preliminary points taken by Mr, Reader Harris were decided against his client, the case proceeded and evidence as to the alleged gambling was led the police. In the licence issued to the defendant, condition 8 reads: "that no.... gambling be permitted on the premises." The question to-bs determined, therefore, is whether on_ the evidence brought the defendant comes within the purview of the above condition of his licence. There is, so far as I am aware, no legal definition of the word gambling, and no definition was submitted to me by the counsel appearing.
reference to the standard dictionaries shows that the word is defined as "to play or game for money''—a definition not very helpful in the present case. The word as commonly used has many shades of meaning, and is applied to various things of diverse character, so that it would be said that a man gambled (infer alia) if he played for stakes. at cards or dice, betted at races, or dealt in shares not for cash, or took chances in lotteries. The. essential element always present in the use of the word is that chance predominates and that skill or knowledge is not the determining factor. 1 would be inclined to define gambling broadly as the determination of a fact on the result of which a pecuniary liability generally depends, by lot or chance.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.