CHAPTEE III. 



WAGERS. 



Wagere at 

 common laiv. 



Wager on 

 the life of 

 Napoleon. 



AVager on the 

 result of an 

 election. 



Betting on 

 a race no 

 longer illegal. 



Bets not 

 recoverahle. 



All iragrrs which were not against the principles o£ 

 morality, public decency or sound policy, were held good 

 at common law ; and a wager or bet was defined to be 

 a contract entered into without colour or fraud, between 

 two or more persons, for a good consideration, and upon 

 mutual promises to pay a stipulated sum of money, or to 

 deliver some other thing to each other, according as some 

 prefixed and equally uncertain contingency should happen 

 within the terms upon which the contract was made (a). 



A leager by which A. received from B. one hundred 

 guineas on the 31st of May, 1802, in consideration of 

 paying him a guinea a day so long as Napoleon Bona- 

 parte (then first Consul of the French Republic) should 

 live, was held to be void on the grounds of immorality and 

 impolicy. This bet arose out of a conversation upon the 

 probability of his coming to a violent death by assassination 

 or otherwise {b). 



So also a ivriger made, before the poll began, between 

 two voters with respect to the event of an election of a 

 member to serve in Parliament, was held to be void, as such 

 contract is corrupt in the eye of the law and against the 

 fundamental j^rinciples of the constitution (c). 



Until the Act of Victoria (d), wagers above a certain 

 amount were declared to be illegal by statute, now, 

 however, the illegality no longer exists, and therefore 

 betting on a race may be practised to any extent without 

 any penalty being incurred. 



But by the above-mentioned Act (e) it is provided, that 

 " all contracts or agreements, whether by parol or in writ- 

 ing, by way of gaming or wagering, shall be naU and void; 

 and no suit shall be brought or maintained in any Court of 

 Law or Equity for recovering any sum of money or valuable 



(a) Jones V. Randall, Cowp. 39 ; 2 

 Hawk. c. 92. 



(J) Gilbcrl V. Sykes, 16 East, 150; 

 14 R. &. 327. 



1 E. R, 



Allen V. Beam, 1 T. R. 56 ; 

 149. 



(d) 8 & 9 Vict. c. 109, s. 16. 

 («) Ihid. 8. 18. 



