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Official Code of Georgia Annotated

Title 16. CRIMES AND OFFENSES · Chapter 12. OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC HEALTH AND MORALS · Article 2. GAMBLING AND RELATED OFFENSES · Part 1. GAMBLING

16-12-22. Commercial gambling.

Active

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

  1. (a)

    A person commits the offense of commercial gambling when he intentionally does any of the following acts:#

    1. (1)

      Operates or participates in the earnings of a gambling place;#

    2. (2)

      Receives, records, or forwards a bet or offer to bet;#

    3. (3)

      For gain, becomes a custodian of anything of value bet or offered to be bet;#

    4. (4)

      Contracts to have or give himself or another the option to buy or sell or contracts to buy or sell at a future time any gain or other commodity whatsoever or any stock or security of any company, when it is at the time of making such contract intended by both parties thereto that the contract to buy or sell, the option whenever exercised or the contract resulting therefrom, shall be settled not by the receipt or delivery of such property but by the payment only of differences in prices thereof;#

    5. (5)

      Sells chances upon the partial or final result of or upon the margin of victory in any game or contest or upon the performance of any participant in any game or contest or upon the result of any political nomination, appointment, or election or upon the degree of success of any nominee, appointee, or candidate;#

    6. (6)

      Sets up or promotes any lottery, sells or offers to sell, or knowingly possesses for transfer or transfers any card, stub, ticket, check, or other device designed to serve as evidence of participation in any lottery; or#

    7. (7)

      Conducts, advertises, operates, sets up, or promotes a bingo game without having a valid license to operate a bingo game as provided by law.#

  2. (b)

    A person who commits the offense of commercial gambling shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years or by a fine not to exceed $20,000.00, or both.#

The notes below are printed with the section but are not enacted law (O.C.G.A. § 1-1-1(c)). They are shown apart from the text.

History

Code 1933, § 26-2703, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1; Ga. L. 1970, p. 236, § 6; Ga. L. 1977, p. 747, § 1; Ga. L. 1978, p. 851, § 1.

Law reviews

For comment on Boyd v. Piggly Wiggly S., Inc., 115 Ga. App. 628, 155 S.E.2d 630 (1967), see 2 Ga. L. Rev. 132 (1967). For note discussing organized crime in Georgia with respect to the application of state gambling laws, and suggesting proposals for combatting organized crime, see 7 Ga. St. B.J. 124 (1970).

Read the official page (the state's PDF, opened at the page this text was read from).

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

Text read from t16-ch12-17-(v14b)-2024-pdf.pdf, Volume V14B, 2024 edition, pages 48 to 49; merge action: carried; file SHA-256 36dbab616896.