§ 13-1-10. Same—keeping gaming bank, gaming tables, etc.

(a)

A person is guilty of illegal possession of a gambling device when he manufactures, sells, transports, rents, gives away, places or possesses, or conducts or negotiates any transaction affecting or designed to affect ownership, custody or use of any gambling device, believing or having reason to believe that the same is to be used in the advancement of unlawful gambling activity. Violation of any provision of this section shall constitute a class 1 misdemeanor.

(b)

All money, gambling devices, office equipment and other personal property used in connection with an illegal gambling enterprise or activity, and all money, stakes and things of value received or proposed to be received by a winner in any illegal gambling transaction, which are lawfully seized by any law enforcement officer or which shall lawfully come into his custody, shall be forfeited to the city by order of the court in which a conviction under this section is obtained. Such court shall order all money so forfeited to be paid over to the city, and by order shall make such disposition of other property so forfeited as the court deems proper, including award of such property to any governmental agency or charitable organization for lawful purposes, or in case of the sale thereof, the proceeds therefrom to be paid over to the city; provided, however, that such forfeiture shall not extinguish the rights of any person without knowledge of the illegal use of such property who is the lawful owner or who has a lien on the same which has been perfected in the manner provided by law.

(c)

A gambling device includes:

(1)

any device, machine, paraphernalia, equipment or other thing, including books, records and other papers, which are actually used in an illegal gambling operation or activity; and

(2)

any machine, apparatus, implement, instrument, contrivance, board or other thing, including, but not limited to, those dependent upon the insertion of a coin or other object for their operation, which operates, either completely automatically or with the aid of some physical act by the player or operator, in such a manner that, depending upon elements of chance, it may eject something of value or determine the prize or other thing of value to which the player is entitled; provided, however, that the return to the user of nothing more than additional chances or the right to use such machine is not deemed something of value within the meaning of this subsection; and provided further, that machines that only sell, or entitle the user to, items of merchandise of equivalent value that may differ from each other in composition, size, shape or color, shall not be deemed gambling devices within the meaning of this subsection.

Such devices are no less gambling devices if they indicate beforehand the definite result of one or more operations but not all the operations. Nor are they any less a gambling device because, apart from their use or adaptability as such, they may also sell or deliver something of value on a basis other than chance. (Code 1963, Sec. 23-14; Ord. No. 2826, 6/28/83, Sec. 8)

State Law Reference: For similar state law, see Code of Va., Sec. 18.2-331.