WAGER - A wager is a bet; a contract
by which two parties or more agree that a certain
sum of money, or other thing, shall be paid or delivered
to one of them, on the happening or not happening
of an uncertain event.
The law does not prohibit all wagers.
To restrain wagers within the bounds of justice the
following conditions must be observed: 1. Each of
the parties must have the right to dispose of the
thing which is the object of the wager. 2. Each must
give a perfect and full consent to the contract, 3.
There must he equality between the parties. 4. There
must be good faith between them. 5. The wager must
not be forbidden by law. In general, it seems that
a wager is legal and maybe enforced in a court of
law, if it be not, 1st, Contrary to public policy,
or immoral; or if it do not in some other respect
tend to the detriment of the public. 2d. If it do
not affect the interest, feelings, or character of
a third person.
Wagers on the event of an election laid before the
poll is open or after it is closed are unlawful. And
wagers are against public policy if they are in restraint
of marriage made as to the mode of playing an illegal
game or on an abstract speculative question of law
or judicial practice, not arising out of circumstances
in which the parties have a real interest.
Wagers as to the sex of an individual or whether
an unmarried woman had borne or would have a child
are illegal; as unnecessarily leading to painful and
indecent considerations. The supreme court of Pennsylvania
have laid it down as a rule, that every bet about
the age, or height, or weight, or wealth, or circumstances,
or situation of any person, is illegal; and this whether
the subject of the bet be man, woman, or child, married
or single, native or foreigner, in this country or
abroad. And it seems that a wager between two coach-proprietors,
whether or not a particular person would go by one
of their coaches is illegal, as exposing that person
to inconvenience.
In the case even of a legal wager, the authority
of a stakeholder, like that of an arbitrator, may
be rescinded by either party before the event happens.
And if after his authority has been countermanded,
and the stake has been demanded, he refuse to deliver
it, trover or assumpsit for money had and received
is maintainable. And where the wager is in its nature
illegal, the stake may be recovered, even after the
event, on demand made before it has been paid over.
