CRIMINAL LAW - STATUTORY INTERPRETATION - POSSESSION OF GAMBLING DEVICES AS MISDEMEANOR

Authors

Richard B. Gushée, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

In raiding a warehouse, a sheriff found forty-six dust-covered slot machines with payoff slots covered and containing no payoff mechanisms. There was no evidence that the machines had ever been used. Appellant had rented the warehouse for the purpose of storing the machines. His testimony showed that he owned the machines and was a dealer engaged in buying and selling them. He was indicted under a statute reading: "Any person who, by himself or with another, shall keep, maintain, employ, or carry on any lottery or other scheme or device for the hazarding of any money or valuable thing shall be guilty of a misdemeanor." On appeal from a conviction for keeping and maintaining a slot machine, held, affirmed. Merely possessing such a machine is unlawful under the statute, whether for storage or for any purpose whatsoever. Davis v. State, (Ga. App. 1948) 49 S.E. (2d) 173.

Recommended Citation

Richard B. Gushée, CRIMINAL LAW - STATUTORY INTERPRETATION - POSSESSION OF GAMBLING DEVICES AS MISDEMEANOR, 47 Mich. L. Rev. 280 (1948).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol47/iss2/17