§ 22-1701 — Lotteries; promotion; sale or possession of tickets.

If any person shall within the District keep, set up, or promote, or be concerned as owner, agent, or clerk, or in any other manner, in managing, carrying on, promoting, or advertising, directly or indirectly, any policy lottery, policy shop, or any lottery, or shall sell or transfer any chance, right, or interest, tangible or intangible, in any policy lottery, or any lottery or shall sell or transfer any ticket, certificate, bill, token, or other device, purporting or intended to guarantee or assure to any person or entitle him or her to a chance of drawing or obtaining a prize to be drawn in any lottery, or in a game or device commonly known as policy lottery or policy or shall sell or transfer, or have in his or her possession for the purpose of sale or transfer, a chance or ticket in or share of a ticket in any lottery or any such bill, certificate, token, or other device, he or she shall be fined upon conviction of each said offense not more than the amount set forth in § 22-3571.01 or be imprisoned not more than 3 years, or both. The possession of any copy or record of any such chance, right, or interest, or of any such ticket, certificate, bill, token, or other device shall be prima facie evidence that the possessor of such copy or record did, at the time and place of such possession, keep, set up, or promote, or was at such time and place concerned as owner, agent, or clerk, or otherwise in managing, carrying on, promoting, or advertising a policy lottery, policy shop, or lottery.

Legislative History

Mar. 3, 1901, 31 Stat. 1330, ch. 854, § 863; June 30, 1902, 32 Stat. 535, ch. 1329; Apr. 5, 1938, 52 Stat. 198, ch. 72, § 1; May 21, 1994, D.C. Law 10-119, § 2(i), 41 DCR 1639; June 11, 2013, D.C. Law 19-317, § 201(n), 60 DCR 2064