If any person shall within the District keep, set up, or promote, or be concerned as owner, agent, or clerk, or in any other manner, in managing, carrying on, promoting, or advertising, directly or indirectly, any policy lottery, policy shop, or any lottery, or shall sell or transfer any chance, right, or interest, tangible or intangible, in any policy lottery, or any lottery or shall sell or transfer any ticket, certificate, bill, token, or other device, purporting or intended to guarantee or assure to any person or entitle him or her to a chance of drawing or obtaining a prize to be drawn in any lottery, or in a game or device commonly known as policy lottery or policy or shall sell or transfer, or have in his or her possession for the purpose of sale or transfer, a chance or ticket in or share of a ticket in any lottery or any such bill, certificate, token, or other device, he or she shall be fined upon conviction of each said offense not more than $1,000 or be imprisoned not more than 3 years, or both. The possession of any copy or record of any such chance, right, or interest, or of any such ticket, certificate, bill, token, or other device shall be prima facie evidence that the possessor of such copy or record did, at the time and place of such possession, keep, set up, or promote, or was at such time and place concerned as owner, agent, or clerk, or otherwise in managing, carrying on, promoting, or advertising a policy lottery, policy shop, or lottery.
CREDIT(S)
(Mar. 3, 1901, 31 Stat. 1330, ch. 854, § 863; June 30, 1902, 32 Stat. 535, ch. 1329; Apr. 5, 1938, 52 Stat. 198, ch. 72, § 1; May 21, 1994, D.C. Law 10-119, § 2(i), 41 DCR 1639.)
HISTORICAL AND STATUTORY NOTES
Prior Codifications
1981 Ed., § 22-1501.
1973 Ed., § 22-1501.
Legislative History of Laws
Law 10-119, the “Anti-Gender Discriminatory Language Criminal Offenses Amendment Act of 1994,” was introduced in Council and assigned Bill No. 10-332, which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. The Bill was adopted on first and second readings on February 1, 1994, and March 1, 1994, respectively. Signed by the Mayor on March 17, 1994, it was assigned Act No. 10-209 and transmitted to both Houses of Congress for its review. D.C. Law 10-119 became effective on May 21, 1994.
Miscellaneous Notes
Advertisement of Maryland State Lottery Games: Section 2(a) of D.C. Law 11-272 provided that nothing in this section shall prohibit advertising a lottery by the Maryland State Lottery so long as Maryland does not prohibit advertising or otherwise publishing an account of a lottery by the District of Columbia. D.C. Law 11-272 became effective on June 3, 1997.
