Public Gambling Act, 1977
Public Gambling Act, 1977
Criminal197716 sections
The Public Gambling Act, 1977, is a legislative measure applicable to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It regulates and prohibits the operation of common gaming-houses and gambling in public streets. The Act empowers authorities to search premises suspected of being used for illegal gambling and arrest individuals involved in such activities. It distinguishes between prohibited gambling and games of "mere skill," which are exempt from the Act. For the ordinary citizen, this law serves to maintain public order by criminalizing unauthorized betting and wagering, while providing a legal framework for police intervention and judicial oversight in gambling-related offences.
- 1. Short title, extent and commencement
- 1A. Interpretation clause
- 2. Power to extend Act
- 3. Penalty for owning or keeping, or having charge of, a gaming-house
- 4. Penalty for being found in a gaming-house
- 5. And any person found in any common gaming-house during any gaming or playing therein shall be presumed, until the contrary be proved, to have been there for the purpose of gaming.
- 6. Finding cards, &c., in suspected houses, to be evidence that such houses are common games
- 7. Finding cards, &c., in suspected houses, to be evidence that such houses are common gaming-houses.
- 8. Penalty on persons arrested for giving false names and addresses.
- 10. On conviction for keeping a gaming-house, instruments of gaming to be destroyed.
- 11. Witnesses indemnified
- 12. Act not to apply to certain games
- 13. Nothing in this Act contained shall be held to apply to any game of mere skill wherever played.
- 14. Offences, by whom triable
- 16. Offences, by whom triable.
- 17. Recovery and application of fines
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