Important New York Betting Decision: Supreme Court Justices Give a New Interpretation of Bookmaking in Aqueduct Cases, Daily Racing Form, 1916-10-12

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IMPORTANT NEW YORK BETTING DECISION. Supremo Court Justices Give a New Interpretation of Bookmaking in Aqueduct Cases. New York, October 11. An important oral betting decision lias been handed down by the Appellate division of the Supreme Court in Brooklyn. A certified copy was sent yesterday to District Attorney Dennis OLeary of Queens County. The decision written by Justice Edward B. Thomas holds that a man does not have to write down bets to be guilty of bookmaking. ne may be held guilty, although the wagers are made orally. The opinion wlille general in effect was written in the specific case of Morris Solomon and Julius Calm, who were convicted of soliciting a bet from detective Horn at the Aqueduct track last July. These men were notified yesterday that they will have to serve terms in the workhouse. When Solomon was sentenced to fifteen days and Calm to thirty, both men appealed. "It is not necessary that the bookmaking should be in writing. In this case, the accused announced odds to persons drawn to him and he conducted his operations as openly as he deemed safe. No one who applied to him to bet was rejected, not even the detective." It was urged in behalf of the defendant that the statute was passed against professional gamblers, and the accused operated for too short a time to be placed in that category. "That would mean that one person could with impunity have his day of doing what, what would be a crime, if done for a time longer. It is not the duration of the alleged act, but what contrivance is used and its relation to the public that is determining."


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1910s/drf1916101201/drf1916101201_2_3
Local Identifier: drf1916101201_2_3
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800