2.
—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —
“common gaming house” includes any place kept or used for gaming to which the public or any class of the public has or may have access, and any place kept for habitual gaming, whether the public or any class of the public has or may have access thereto or not, and any place kept or used for the purpose of a public lottery whether the public has access thereto or not;
“gaming”, with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means the playing of any game of chance or of mixed chance and skill for money or money’s worth;
“instruments or appliances for gaming” includes all articles declared under subsection (4) to be instruments or appliances for gaming and all articles which are used in or for the purpose of gaming or a lottery.
“lottery” includes any game, method, device, scheme or competition whereby money or money’s worth is distributed or allotted in any manner depending upon or to be determined by chance or lot, whether the same is held, drawn, exercised or managed within or without Singapore;
“lottery ticket” includes any paper or figure or writing or symbol or other article whatsoever which either expressly or tacitly entitles or purports to entitle the holder or any other person to receive any money or money’s worth on the happening of any event or contingency connected with any public lottery;
“place” means any house, office, room or building and any place or spot, whether open or enclosed, and includes a ship, boat or other vessel, whether afloat or not, and any vehicle;
“public lottery” means a lottery to which the public or any class of the public has or may have access, and every lottery shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to be a public lottery;
“public place” means any place to which the public has or may have access and includes any estate, factory or place in which 10 or more persons are employed.
(2) For the purposes of this Act —
(a)
a place in which lottery tickets are offered for sale, sold or distributed shall be deemed to be used for the purpose of a public lottery;
(b)
a place shall be deemed to be used for a purpose if it is used for that purpose even on one occasion only;
(c)
every person who demises or lets for hire a place shall be deemed the owner thereof.
(3) The Minister may from time to time by notification in the Gazette —
(a)
declare any game, method, device, scheme or competition specified or described in the notification to be a lottery for the purposes of this Act and thereupon it shall be an irrebuttable presumption of law that that game, method, device, scheme or competition is a lottery for the purposes of this Act;
(b)
declare any game, method, device, scheme or competition specified or described in the notification to be a game of chance or a mixed game of chance and skill for the purposes of this Act and thereupon it shall be an irrebuttable presumption of law that that game, method, device, scheme or competition is a game of chance or a mixed game of chance and skill, as the case may be, for the purposes of this Act.
(4) The Minister may from time to time by notification in the Gazette declare articles specified or described in the notification to be instruments or appliances for gaming.