Prohibition Against the Importation, Sale, Giving Away, Use, and Possession of Lottery Tickets and Lottery Advertising Matter

August 9, 1906

ACT NO. 1523

AN ACT TO PROHIBIT THE IMPORTATION, SALE, GIVING AWAY, USE, AND POSSESSION OF LOTTERY TICKETS AND LOTTERY ADVERTISING MATTER

SECTION 1. It shall be unlawful to import into the Philippine Islands from any outside place or port any lottery ticket or any advertisement of any lottery, and all such articles, whether imported separately or with other goods entitled to entry, shall be denied entry, and shall be seized and held for forfeiture according to law, including the goods where said lottery tickets or advertisements are packed, and the wrappings, cases, or receptacles in which they are contained.

SECTION 2. It shall be unlawful to import into the Philippine Islands through the mails any lottery ticket or advertisement of any lottery, and all such articles so imported shall be seized and held by the postal authorities as articles whose importation is prohibited by Article Sixteen, part three, of the Universal Postal Convention of June fifteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, to which the United States is a party; and upon being so seized all such articles shall be delivered to the collector of customs at the nearest port, and shall be thereupon declared by him to be confiscated, and shall be totally destroyed as dangerous to the public morals.

SECTION 3. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, give away, use, or have possession of, with intent to sell, give away, or use, any lottery ticket or advertisement of any lottery, and possession of any such article shall be deemed presumptive evidence of an intent to sell, give away, or use the same in the Philippine Islands, and said possession, unless satisfactorily explained, shall be deemed sufficient evidence to warrant conviction.

SECTION 4. It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly to deposit in or take from the mails any lottery ticket or advertisement of any lottery.

SECTION 5. Any lottery ticket or advertisement of any lottery found in the illegal possession of any person shall be forfeited and destroyed, and any person who shall violate any of the preceding provisions of this Act shall, upon conviction, for each offense be punished by a fine of not more than two thousand pesos, or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court.

SECTION 6. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

ENACTED, August 9, 1906.