MAH JONG A GAME IN COURT POLICE CASE FAILS

MAH JONG A GAME IN COURT POLICE CASE FAILS

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) TIMARU, July 19. A case of some interest was heard in the Magistrate's Court today, when Willie Wong, a Chinese.fruiterer, was charged' with keeping a gaming house, and four other Chinese were: charged with being found in a gaming houee. The case was a sequel to a police raid, when tho accused were found in the kitchen of the premises playing mah jongg. Each man had a pile of money in trout ot him. The case hinged on the determination of whether mah jongg was a game of chance, thereby an unlawful game. A police witness, Percy Chew Lee, described the game, stating that skill ivas involved m determining what tiles, as the pieces are called, were held by opponents, and what they were endeavouring to build up. An exhibition game was given in Court by four Chinese. The Magistrate (Mr. C. R. Orr Walker) said that the police case rested on whether mail jongg was a game of pure, chance or whether it contained a sufficient element iof skill to remove it-from that-category, l.lifi Legislature hud determined certain Chinese games as unlawful, but in ah' Jongs was not -included. He came to the conehtsion that there was a substantial amount of skill in the game, and the police case must fail. The informations were dismissed. Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 17, 20 July 1934, Page 11