Cases argued and decided in the Supreme Court of Texas, during the latter part of the Tyler term, 1874, and the first part of the Galveston term, 1875. Volume 42. Page: 585
viii, 704 p. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this book.
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1875.] iANDLE V. THE STATE. 585
Opinion of the Court.
meaning may lurk in this extract from the law, it is not neces.
sary to inquire; if it were, it would be difficult to determine
what is, or is not, embraced within the attempted definition of
a gift enterprise; it is only necessary to declare that if a gift
enterprise association, or any other scheme, carried out, or set
on foot, by any person, firm, or corporation, no matter what its
name or plan for operating may be, if it is a scheme or plan
for "the distribution of prizes by chance," it comes under the
prohibition contained in Article 404 of the Criminal Code,
and cannot have by general or special laws, or by charter or
general act of incorporation, any other standing than any other
illegal act or enterprise set on foot or carried out in defiance of
positive law and a constitutional prohibition could have.
Article 12, Section 36, of the general provisions of the Constitution,
contains the same prohibition as that found in Article
7, Section 17, of the general provisions of the Constitution
of L845. The article reads: "No lottery shall be authorized
"by this State, and the buying and selling of lottery tickets
"within this State is prohibited." The constitutional provision
needs no aid to show what is meant, so far as the granting authority
by any power in the State to establish a lottery is concerned;
and it only remains to inquire, what is understood to
be meant by the words, "establish a lottery."
Bouvier's definition is, " A scheme for the distribution of
prizes by chance," and this has been generally received by
courts as the clearest and most comprehensive of the several
definitions of lottery.
We are led by this to the inquiry, is " The Galveston Gift
"Enterprise Association," "a scheme for the distribution of
"prizes by chance ?" If it is such a scheme, it is a lottery, and
those carrying it on are liable to indictment, and, on conviction,
to punishment. In Wooden v. Shotwell, 3 New Jersey, 470.
a tract of land was divided into fifty-eight lots of unequal
value, platted on a map, and numbered, the purchasers paying
the same price for each lot; the number of each lot on a separate
piece of paper was placed in a box and the names of each
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Texas. Supreme Court. Cases argued and decided in the Supreme Court of Texas, during the latter part of the Tyler term, 1874, and the first part of the Galveston term, 1875. Volume 42., book, 1881; St. Louis, Mo.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth28531/m1/593/: accessed May 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .