State v. Sedgwick

Citations

• 25 Del. 453
• 2 Boyce 453
• 81 A. 472
• 1911 Del. LEXIS 65

Syllabus

<p>1. Lotteries — Elements of Offense — Statutes.</p> <p>Rev. Code 1852, amended to 1893, p. 396 (12 Del. Laws, c. 33), provides that if any person shall sell or dispose of any lottery policy, certificate, or of anything by which such person or any number of persons promises or guarantees that any particular number, character, ticket, or certificate shall, in an event or on the happening of any contingency in the nature of a lottery, entitle the purchaser or holder to receive money, property, or evidence of debt, every person so offending shall on conviction be subject to a penalty. Held, that the fact that tickets representing membership in a baseball pool did not in themselves show a promise or guaranty that on the happening of an event, the holder should be entitled to money, did not save the scheme from being a violation of the statute, since the term “lottery”, as used therein, includes any scheme for the distribution of money or prizes by chance, not limited to a sale of tickets nor to the terms or promises printed or written upon them.</p> <p>2. Lotteries — Scheme—Proof.</p> <p>Where a lottery scheme involved more than appeared on tickets issued in the conduct thereof, its character and extent could be shown by any proper testimony.</p> <p>3. Lotteries — Contingency—Chance.</p> <p>Where a baseball pool involved a double hazard of selection of a combination of numbers designated by a drawing to be representative of certain baseball clubs, the winnings on which were determined by the baseball score, the prize being given, not to him who might forecast the results of the games either in victories or runs, but to him who selected and paid for combinations of numbers, each representing a club, not selected by, but designated for, him, the total numbers of which approached nearest the highest total of runs made in a given time by a like number of clubs, the payment of the prizes depended on the happening of a contingency in the nature of a lottery, and was prohibit