1. Every person who, within the Settlement of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore and Malacca, shall keep a common gaming-house, or any room or other place used for the purposes of a common gaming-house, or who shall have the care or management thereof, or shall in any manner conduct the business of any such common gaming-house, either as banker, shroff, croupier or otherwise, shall, on conviction before the Court of Quarter Session of the said Settlement, be punishable by imprisonment, with or without hard labor, for any term not exceeding six calendar months, or, in the discretion of the Court, to a fine not exceeding Five Hundred Dollars, and in default of payment of such fine, where a fine shall be imposed, the offender may be imprisoned by the said Court, with or without hard labor, either in the House of Correction or Her Majesty's Jail, for any period not exceeding six calendar months.

2. In default of other evidence proving any house, room, or place to be used as a common gaming-house, it shall be enough, in support of the allegation in any charge that any house, room, or place is a common gaming-house, to prove that such house, room, or place is kept or used for playing therein at cards, dice, poh, or any unlawful game, and that a bank is kept there by any one or more of the players exclusively of the others, or that the chances of any game played therein are not alike favorable to all the players, including among the players the banker or other person by whom the game is managed, or against whom the other players stake, play, or bet; and every such house, room, or place shall be deemed a common gaming-house.

3. Every person who shall be found in any such common gaming-house playing or gaming with cards, dice, counters, poh, money, or other instruments of gaming, or who shall be found there present for the purpose of gaming, or who shall be found gaming with cards, dice, counters, poh, money, or other instruments of gaming in any public street, place, or thoroughfare within the said Settlement, whether playing for any money, wager, stake or otherwise, shall be punishable, on conviction before the Court of Quarter Session of the said Settlement, by imprisonment for any term not exceeding three calendar months, or, in the discretion of the said Court, by fine not exceeding Two Hundred Dollars, and in default of payment of such fine, may be imprisoned by the said Court, with or without hard labor, either in the House of Correction or in Her Majesty's Jail, for any period not exceeding three calendar months; and any person found in any common gaming-house during any gaming or playing therein, shall be presumed, until the contrary be proved, to have been there for the purpose of gaming.

4. Any Justice of the Peace of the said Settlement, upon information laid before him on oath that there is reason to suspect any house, room, or place within the said Settlement to be used as a common gaming-house, may, by his warrant, give authority to any Peace Officer of the said Settlement to enter, with such assistance as may be found necessary, by night or by day, and by force if necessary, any such house, room, or other place, and to take into custody all persons whom he finds therein, whether or not then actually gaming; and to seize all instruments of gaming, and all moneys and securities for money found therein, and to search all parts of the house, room, or place which he shall have so entered, when he has reason to believe that any instruments of gaming are concealed therein, and to search also the persons of those whom he so takes into custody, and to seize and take possession of all cards, dice, polis, counters, and other instruments of gaming, which he shall find upon such search.

5. If any Peace Officer shall see any persons engaged in playing at cards, dice, poh, or other game, in any common gaming-house, it shall be lawful for such Peace Officer and his Assistants, without a warrant, to enter such gaming-house, and to apprehend all persons whom he shall find therein in the act or for the purpose of gaming, and to seize and take possession of all money and instruments of gaming found therein, or upon the persons of those so taken into custody; Provided that neither such Peace Officer nor any of his Assistants shall use force or violence for the purpose of gaming admittance into such gaming-house.

6. When any cards, dice, pohs, gaming-table, or cloth, board, or other instruments of gaming are found in any house, room, or place, of which information has been given on oath to a Justice of the Peace that it is suspected of being used as a common gaming-house, or about the person of any of those who are found therein, it shall be evidence, until the contrary is made to appear, that such house, room, or place is used as a common gaming-house, and that the persons found therein were there present for the purpose of gaming, although no play was actually seen by the Peace Officer, or any of his Assistants.

7. On conviction of any person for keeping any such common gaming-house, or being present therein for the purpose of gaining, all the instruments of gaming found therein shall be destroyed by order of the Court of Quarter Session, which may also order all or any of the securities for money and other articles seized, not being instruments of gaming, to be sold and converted into money, and the proceeds thereof, with all moneys seized therein, to be forfeited; or in its discretion may order any part thereof to be returned to the parties appearing to have been severally thereunto entitled.

8. Any Officer of Police may arrest, without warrant, all persons whom he may see in the act of gaming in any common gaming-house, or in any public street, place, or thoroughfare in the said Settlement, and seize all cards, dice, pohs, counters, and instruments of gaming which he finds in their possession, and such cards, dice, pohs, counters, and instruments shall, on conviction of any of the parties, be forfeited.

9. It shall not be necessary in order to convict any person of keeping a common gaming-house, or of being concerned in the management of any common gaming-house, to prove that any person found playing at any game was playing for any money, wager, or stake.

10. Any person, who shall have been concerned in any unlawful gaming, and who shall be examined as a witness before the said Court of Quarter Session on the trial of any person or persons for a breach of any of the provisions of this Act, and who upon such examination shall make true and faithful discovery, to the best of his or her knowledge, of all things as to which he or she shall be so examined, and who shall thereupon receive from the said Court a certificate in writing to that effect, shall be freed from all prosecutions under this Act for anything done before that time in respect of such unlawful gaming.

11. Any Justice of the Peace of the said Settlement, upon information laid before him upon oath charging any person with being the keeper or manager of a common gaming-house, or of any room or place used for the purpose of a common gaming-house within the said Settlement, may issue his warrant directed to any Peace Officer to apprehend any such person, and to bring him before such Justice or any other Justice of the Peace of the said Settlement, to be dealt with according to law.

12. Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Act contained shall be held to apply to any game of mere skill played at licensed hotels, taverns, or eating-houses, or places of public resort within the said Settlement.

13. Every person who shall, by any fraud, or unlawful device, or ill practice, in playing at or with cards, dice, or other game, or in bearing a part of the stakes, wagers, or adventures, or in betting on the sides or hands of them that do play, or in wagering on the event of any game, sport, pastime or exercise, win from any other person, for himself, or any other or others, any sum of money or valuable thing, shall be deemed guilty of obtaining such money or valuable thing from such other person by a false pretence, with intent to cheat or defraud such person of the same, and, being convicted thereof, shall be punished accordingly.

14. No conviction, or other proceeding before the said Court of Quarter Session under this Act, shall be quashed, reversed, or set aside, or adjudged void or insufficient for want of form, or be removed by Certiorari into Her Majesty's Court of Judicature of the said Settlement.

15. The Court of Quarter Session shall, on conviction, have power to direct any portion, not exceeding one-fourth of any fine which shall be levied under the provisions of this Act, or any part of the moneys or proceeds of articles seized under the provisions of this Act, and ordered to be forfeited, to be paid to an informer; and the balance of such fines and moneys, or the whole thereof, as the case may be, shall be applied to the use of the municipal fund of the station within the said Settlement at which the same shall have been taken.