Definition
The act of staking money or something of value on the outcome of a contest, game, or uncertain event, where chance plays a material role in determining the result. In legal usage, gambling is treated as synonymous with gaming in the criminal law context. Most definitions share three core components: consideration (a wager or stake), chance (the outcome is not entirely controlled by the player), and a prize or reward to the winner.
Gambling is regulated primarily through state criminal law, licensing regimes, and, increasingly, federal frameworks governing interstate and online activity. What constitutes gambling — and what does not — has been a persistent source of litigation, particularly as applied to financial instruments, contests of skill, and emerging digital markets.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): An activity characterized by a balance between winning and losing that is governed by a mixture of skill and chance, usually with money wagered on the outcome.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To play or game for money or other stake; to hazard.
The ordinary definition treats gambling as a matter of degree — a balance of skill and chance. The legal definition is more categorical. Courts and legislatures have long disputed where exactly chance ends and skill begins, and that line determines criminal liability, licensing requirements, and regulatory jurisdiction. A game that popular usage would call gambling (poker, for instance) may or may not qualify under a given state's statutory definition, depending on whether skill or chance predominates. The everyday sense of the word is therefore a poor guide to the legal one.
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Common Confusion
GAMBLING vs. GAMING: Historically, these terms were used interchangeably in criminal law, and Bouvier's treats them as synonymous. In modern usage, gaming has acquired a second, sanitized meaning — the licensed, regulated casino and lottery industry — while gambling often carries the implication of illegality or unlicensed activity. A researcher should not assume that a source using gaming is referring only to licensed activity, or that one using gambling is referring only to unlawful conduct. The distinction is largely contextual and shifts between sources and eras.
GAMBLING vs. SPECULATION: Courts and legislatures have repeatedly confronted the question of whether trading in stocks, futures, or commodities constitutes gambling. Rapalje & Lawrence flags this directly (what is not, as applied to stocks, 70 Pa. St. 325). Many nineteenth-century jurisdictions carved out financial speculation from gambling statutes either by express exception or judicial construction, a line that continues to produce litigation in derivatives and prediction market contexts.
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Why It Matters in Research
The primary research trap is the term's instability across time and jurisdiction. In older sources — including Rapalje & Lawrence and Bouvier's — gambling and gaming are used interchangeably and both route to the same criminal law doctrine. Researchers using nineteenth-century materials should not treat these as distinct concepts. Modern sources, by contrast, often use gaming to denote licensed activity and gambling for the unlicensed or illegal variety. The gap between these usages can produce false distinctions if sources from different eras are read together without adjustment.
The Rapalje & Lawrence entry is unusually useful here because it catalogs the definitional litigation — what is gambling, what is not, what is not as applied to stocks — with case citations that map the contested perimeter of the concept. Researchers working on edge cases (fantasy sports, prediction markets, derivatives, video game loot boxes) will find that these definitional battles have direct analogues in modern law.
The tax dimension is a distinct research track. Federal tax law treats gambling income as gross income subject to tax and allows losing gamblers to deduct losses, but only under specific conditions and only to the extent of winnings. The interplay between criminal law definitions (is this activity gambling?) and tax definitions (is this income or loss from gambling?) is not automatic — an activity legal under state law may still produce gambling income for federal tax purposes, and the reverse can also raise questions.
Online and interstate gambling has generated a separate federal corpus under the Wire Act and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which operate independently of state criminal definitions. Researchers should be alert to the possibility that a given activity is lawful under state law but reaches into federal jurisdiction.
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Historical Dictionary Support
All three historical dictionaries treat gambling as a criminal law term, and all defer to gaming as the substantive entry. Bouvier's states the equivalence directly: synonymous, in a criminal sense, with gaming. Black's follows the same pattern. This tells researchers that the primary doctrinal development in historical sources will be found under GAMING, not under GAMBLING — an important navigation point when working with older digest and encyclopedia materials.
Rapalje & Lawrence is the outlier in a useful way. Rather than simply cross-referencing, it preserves the litigation record around definitional disputes, including what is not gambling and what is not a gambling device. This reflects the practical function of that dictionary as a case-finding tool. The gambling device entries (what is, what is not, and how to plead it in an indictment) are particularly relevant for researchers working on criminal charging documents or on the history of anti-gambling enforcement.
None of the historical sources address the tax treatment of gambling, the federal interstate dimension, or licensed gaming — all of which are modern developments outside their scope.
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Jurisdictional Note
Gambling law is overwhelmingly state law, and the definition of what constitutes gambling varies meaningfully by jurisdiction — particularly on the skill-versus-chance question. Some states apply a dominant factor test (is chance the dominant element?), others an any-chance test. These differences determine whether poker, fantasy sports, or skill-based amusement machines fall within the criminal statute. Federal law adds a separate layer for interstate and online activity.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Gambling Offenses (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia)
Gross Income — Gambling Income and Losses (The Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia)
Itemized Deductions — Gambling Losses (The Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia)
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