Gaming Act 1845
The Gaming Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict., c. 109) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act's principal provision was to deem a wager unenforceable as a legal contract. The Act received Royal Assent on 8 August 1845. Sections 17 and 18, though amended, remained in force until 1 September 2007. Background. Increasing concern as to the damaging social effects of gambling gave rise to a select committee of the House of Commons whose recommendations were implemented by the Act. The policy of the Act was to discourage betting. However, following a  2001 report by Sir Alan Budd, in 2002, the UK government accepted that wagers should cease to be unenforceable as contracts, seeking to introduce a new liberalised regulatory regime in order to encourage the gambling industry. Repeals. Sections 1 to 9 and 15 and 16 and 19 to 24 and 26, and the First and Second Schedules, were repealed by Part I of Schedule 6 to the Betting and Gaming Act 1960. Sections 10 to 14 and the Third Schedule were repealed by section 1 of, and the Schedule to, the Billiards (Abolition of Restrictions) Act 1987 Section 25 was  repealed by Part XIX of Schedule 1 to the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1976 This Act was repealed for Northern Ireland by article 187(4) of, and Schedule 21 to, the Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 (S.I. 1985/1204 (N.I. 11)). The whole Act was repealed in the Republic of Ireland by the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956. Exclusion. This Act was excluded by section 16(4) of the Gaming Act 1968. Section 1 – Repeal of part of the Unlawful Games Act 1541. Section 1 repealed the Unlawful Games Act 1541 (33 Hen 8 c 9), as to so  much It provides such commandment, appointment, or licence shall not avail any person to exempt him from the danger or penalty of playing at any unlawful game or in any common gaming house. Section 15 – Repeal of other laws. Section 15 repeals the following: Section 17 – Cheating at play. This section created an offence. At the time of its repeal this section read: The words of enactment at the start were repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1891. The words in square brackets were substituted for the words "be deemed guilty of obtaining such money or valuable thing from  such other person by a false pretence, with intent to cheat or defraud such person of the same, and, being convicted thereof, shall be punished accordingly" by sections 33(2) and 36(3) of, and Part III of Schedule 2 to, the Theft Act 1968. Two hundred pounds Section 32(2) of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 provided that the reference to two hundred pounds was to be construed as a reference to the prescribed sum. The following cases are relevant: In 2005, Kwong Lee, Martin Fitz and Shuhal Miah were found guilty of cheating at roulette under this section. Section 18 – Gambling  contracts deemed void. This section concerned whether unpaid winnings accrued from gambling could be sued for in a court of law. The Act made it clear that they could not because winnings from gambling were to be treated as a "debt of honour" and as such could not be treated as a financial debt. The Act read: This section was extended by the Gaming Act 1892. However, a bet on the Horserace Totalisator Board, also known as The Tote, did not fall within the scope of the Act. Further, by the 1980s, it was feared that complex commercial risk management  instruments and contracts, such as derivatives could fall foul of the Act. Provision was made that a contract would not be void if at least one of the parties entered into it for legitimate business purposes. The exemption is now found in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 s 412. The Gambling Act 2005 removed the "debt of honour" clause that made gambling winnings exempt from legal action if they were not paid. This meant that unpaid winnings could now be pursued in a court of law. Section 19 – Feigned issues abolished. Court of law or equity that desired  to have any question of fact decided by a jury had it presented in the form of feigned issues, by stating that a wager was laid between two parties interested in respectively maintaining the affirmative and the negative of certain propositions. It was enacted that in every case where any court of law or equity desires to have any question of fact decided by a jury it should the directly state the question of fact in dispute, with such persons being plaintiffs and defendants as the court may direct, rather than as a feigned issue of a wager. Ireland and  Northern Ireland. The Act was in force in Ireland until partition. It consequently became the law of the Irish Free State on 6 December 1922, and then of its successor states until its repeal in 1956. When the autonomous region of Northern Ireland seceded from the Irish Free State and rejoined the United Kingdom on 7 December 1922, the Act became the law of Northern Ireland until repeal.