Massachusetts Statutes

Section 10A. Any person who is discovered by a police officer in the act of violating section seven, eight, nine, twelve, sixteen, seventeen, seventeen A, eighteen or twenty-two, while such officer is lawfully at or within the place where such violation occurred, may be arrested …

Section 11. Whoever, himself or by another, advertises a lottery ticket or a share in such ticket for sale, or sets up or exhibits, or devises or makes for the purpose of being set up or exhibited, any sign, symbol or emblematic or other representation of a lottery or the drawing…

Section 12. Whoever makes or sells, or has in his possession with intent to sell, exchange or negotiate, or by printing, writing or otherwise assists in making or selling, or in attempting to sell, exchange or negotiate, a false or fictitious lottery ticket, or any share thereof,…

Section 13. Upon the trial of a person charged with any of the crimes mentioned in the preceding section, a ticket or share of a ticket, or other writing or thing before mentioned, which the defendant has sold or offered for sale, or for which he has received a valuable considera…

Section 14. Money or other thing of value drawn as a prize or share thereof in a lottery, and all property disposed of or offered to be disposed of by illegal gaming, including games of chance or device under the pretext mentioned in section seven, by an inhabitant of or a reside…

Section 15. Whoever, except as provided in section five of chapter one hundred and twenty-eight A, aids, either by printing or writing, or is in any way concerned in setting up, promoting, managing or drawing a lottery for money, set up, promoted, managed, or drawn out of the com…

Section 16. Whoever sells, for himself or another, or offers for sale or has in his possession with intent so to do or to exchange or negotiate, or aids or assists in selling, negotiating, exchanging or disposing of a ticket, or a share of a ticket, in a lottery described in the …

Section 16A. Whoever knowingly organizes, supervises, manages or finances at least four persons so that such persons may provide facilities or services or assist in the provision of facilities or services for the conduct of illegal lotteries, or for the illegal registration of be…

Section 17. Whoever keeps a building or room, or any part thereof, or occupies, or is found in, any place, way, public or private, park or parkway, or any open space, public or private, or any portion thereof, with apparatus, books or any device, for registering bets, or buying o…

Section 17A. Except as permitted under chapter 23N, whoever uses a telephone, internet or other communications technology or, being the occupant in control of premises where a telephone, internet or other communications technology is located or a subscriber for such communication…

Section 17B. Except as otherwise prohibited under section 2703 of Title 18 of the United States Code, whenever the attorney general or a district attorney has reasonable grounds to believe that records in the possession of: (i) a common carrier subject to the jurisdiction of the …

Section 18. Whoever keeps, sets up, promotes or is concerned as owner, agent, clerk or in any other manner, in managing a policy lottery or policy shop, or writes, prints, sells, transfers or delivers a ticket, certificate, slip, bill, token or other device, purporting or designe…

Section 19. The printing, writing, advertising, issuing or delivery of any ticket, paper, document or other article or material representing or purporting to represent the existence of or any chance or interest in any lottery, policy lottery or policy game, pool or pools, registe…

Section 1A. The words ''house'', ''building'' and ''place'' used severally or together in this chapter shall mean and include a ship or vessel when it is within the territorial limits of the commonwealth.

Section 2. Whoever, in a public conveyance or public place, or in a private place upon which he is trespassing, plays at cards, dice or any other game for money or other property, or bets on the sides or hands of those playing, except as permitted under chapters 23K and 23N, shal…

Section 20. All lottery, policy or pool tickets, slips or checks, memoranda of any combination or other bet, manifold or other policy or pool books or sheets, are hereby declared a common nuisance and the possession thereof unlawful; and the possession of any such article, or of …

Section 21. In a prosecution or proceeding relative to lotteries, policy lotteries or policy, buying and selling pools or registered bets, any words, figures or characters, written, printed or exposed upon a blackboard, placard or otherwise, in a place alleged to be used or occup…

Section 22. Whoever receives a letter, package or parcel for delivery to or transportation from a person, or delivers or transports the same to or from a person, having reasonable cause to believe that such person is engaged or in any way concerned in the management or promotion …

Section 22A. Nothing in this chapter shall authorize the prosecution, arrest or conviction of any person for conducting or promoting, or for allowing to be conducted or promoted, a game of cards commonly called whist or bridge, in connection with which prizes are offered to be wo…

Section 22B. Nothing in this chapter shall authorize the prosecution, arrest or conviction of any person for promoting or playing, or for allowing to be conducted, promoted or played, the game commonly called beano, or substantially the same game under another name in connection …

Section 23. If a person makes oath before a district court or justice of the peace authorized to issue warrants in criminal cases that he suspects or has probable cause to suspect that a house or other building, room or place is used as and for a common gaming house, for gaming f…

Section 24. This chapter shall not authorize the arrest or conviction of the owner or proprietor of a race track or trotting course for the reason that another person has without his knowledge or consent violated any of its provisions relative to the buying and selling of pools o…

Section 25. If a captain of police in Boston or marshal or chief of police in any other city or town in the commonwealth finds that access to any building, apartment or place which he has reasonable cause to believe is resorted to for the purpose of unlawful gaming is barred by a…

Section 26. If, within one year after removal of said obstruction, the premises are again obstructed as above defined, the captain of police or marshal or chief of police shall have the same power of removal as provided in the preceding section, and in addition the owner or agent…

Section 27. Any court or magistrate having criminal jurisdiction may take judicial notice of the general methods and character of lotteries, policy lotteries or the game called policy, pools or combination bets, and the buying and selling of pools and registering of bets. In the …

Section 28. No plea of misnomer shall be received to a complaint or indictment for violation of any law relative to lotteries, policy lotteries or policy, the selling of pools or registering of bets, or any form of illegal gaming; but the defendant may be arraigned, tried, senten…

Section 29. Whoever sells, exchanges or disposes of any property, or offers or attempts so to do, upon a representation, advertisement, notice or inducement that anything other than what is specifically stated to be the subject of the sale or exchange is or is to be delivered or …

Section 3. Except as permitted under chapters 23K and 23N, every innholder, common victualler or person keeping or suffering to be kept in any place occupied by him implements such as are used in gaming, in order that the same may for hire, gain or reward be used for amusement, w…

Section 30. Whoever, in connection with the sale of any article or any merchandise whatsoever, sells, gives or delivers any trading stamps, checks, coupons or similar devices to be exchanged for, or to be redeemed by the giving of, any indefinite or undescribed article, the natur…

Section 31. Whoever, except in trials of speed of horses for premiums offered by legally constituted agricultural societies, or by corporations authorized thereto by section fourteen of chapter one hundred and eighty, engages in racing, running, trotting or pacing a horse or othe…

Section 31A. Whoever transmits the results of a race, or information as to the progress of a race during the running thereof, in a racing meeting as defined in section one of chapter one hundred and twenty-eight A, by any means to another knowing that such results or information …

Section 32. Whoever, for the purpose of competing for a purse or premium offered by an agricultural society, or by a person or association in the commonwealth, knowingly and designedly enters or drives a horse that is painted or disguised, or is a different horse from the one tha…

Section 33. No land within a town shall be laid out or used as a race ground or trotting park without the previous consent of and location by the mayor and city council, the town council in a town having a town council or the selectmen in any other town, who may regulate and alte…

Section 34. Every race ground or trotting park established, laid out, used or continued in use contrary to this chapter is declared a common nuisance and may be abated as such; and all persons owning, keeping, using or permitting to be used such race ground or trotting park, or a…

Section 35. The following words and phrases used in this and the three following sections of this chapter shall, unless a different meaning is required by the context, have the following meanings: ''Person'', an individual, partnership, corporation or association, whether acting …

Section 36. Whoever makes, or offers to make, any contract of bucketing or bucket-shopping, or who is the keeper of any bucket shop, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year. Whoever shall be convicted of a se…

Section 37. Whoever shall communicate, receive, exhibit or display in any manner any statement of quotations of prices of any securities or commodities with an intent to make, or offer to make, or to aid in making, or offering to make, any contract prohibited by the preceding sec…

Section 38. Every person shall furnish, upon demand, to any customer or principal for whom such person has executed any order for the actual purchase or sale of any securities or commodities, either for immediate or future delivery, a written statement containing the names of the…

Section 39. (a) Whoever, in relation to any transaction or matter concerning the business affairs of an employer, principal or beneficiary (1) offers, gives or agrees to give an agent or fiduciary of another person any benefit or anything of value with intent to influence the rec…

Section 39A. Whoever gives, promises or offers to any professional or amateur baseball, football, hockey, polo, tennis or basketball player or any boxer or any player who participates or expects to participate in any professional or amateur game or sport or any jockey, driver or …

Section 4. Whoever, in any place mentioned in the preceding section, for the purpose of gaming for money or other property, uses or takes part in using a billiard table, bowling alley or other implement of gaming, or there plays at an unlawful game or sport, or, for the purpose o…

Section 40. No railroad, street railway, electric light, gas, telegraph, telephone, water or steamboat company, and no licensee conducting a horse or dog racing meeting under chapter one hundred and twenty-eight A, shall appoint, promote, reinstate, suspend or discharge any perso…

Section 41. The offices of probation officer, notary public, justice of the peace, prison officer, agent of the commissioner of correction and agent of the department of public welfare shall not be considered public offices within the meaning of the preceding section.

Section 42. Whoever bets or wagers or sells pools on any boxing or sparring match or exhibition shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than three months or by a fine of not less than fifty dollars, or both; provided, however, that such provisions shall not apply to sports…

Section 43. Any person who, except for purposes directly connected with the administration of general public assistance, old age assistance, aid to the blind, or aid to families with dependent children, and in accordance with the rules and regulations of the department of transit…

Section 44. Except as provided below, no settlement or general release or statement in writing signed by any person confined in a hospital or sanitarium as a patient with reference to any personal injuries for which said person is confined in said hospital or sanitarium shall be …