Definition
A gambling device is any machine, contrivance, apparatus, or instrument used to conduct or facilitate a game in which the outcome is determined by chance and something of value is wagered. The term appears most commonly in criminal statutes prohibiting the manufacture, possession, sale, or operation of such equipment.
The definition encompasses two overlapping concepts:
1. Mechanical or electronic gaming equipment — slot machines, roulette wheels, dice cups, card shufflers, and electronic gaming terminals through which players wager money on random or chance-based outcomes.
2. Any contrivance used to determine winners and losers in a contest of chance — a broader formulation that reaches improvised or purpose-built instruments not ordinarily associated with commercial gambling, including rigged wheels, marked card decks used as instruments of fraud, and number-drawing contraptions.
Whether a particular item qualifies as a gambling device under a given statute turns on its design or intended use, the role of chance in the outcome, and whether a stake or wager is involved. Modern federal law (the Johnson Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1171–1178) uses the term to regulate interstate commerce in slot machines and similar coin-operated gaming equipment, establishing a federal floor that coexists with state licensing regimes.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A device used for gambling, especially a mechanical or electronic machine such as a slot machine.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined; "device" carried the general sense of a contrivance or artifice designed for a particular purpose.
The gap here is one of legal precision, not reversal. Ordinary usage calls to mind the slot machine or casino table game. Legal usage is materially broader: courts and statutes have applied the term to equipment as rudimentary as a marked deck of cards or a spinner wheel constructed to defraud players. A researcher who limits the search to mechanical gaming machines will miss a significant body of case law involving improvisational gambling paraphernalia and games of chance conducted without commercial equipment.
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Common Confusion
GAMBLING DEVICE vs. GAMBLING PARAPHERNALIA: Many state statutes separately define gambling paraphernalia (records, slips, tickets, and tallying instruments used to operate a gambling enterprise) distinct from gambling devices (the mechanical or electronic instruments through which games are played). The distinction matters for charging purposes and for sentencing: possession of a gambling device is often a more serious offense than possession of paraphernalia. Researchers working with older statutes should not assume the two categories are always distinguished.
GAMBLING DEVICE vs. GAMING DEVICE: In jurisdictions with legalized commercial gambling, "gaming device" is often the preferred statutory term for licensed equipment. The practical referent is the same, but the legal context differs sharply. A gaming device is lawfully licensed; a gambling device in the same jurisdiction is typically the unlicensed counterpart. Conflating the two produces misleading results when researching regulatory licensing schemes alongside criminal prohibition statutes.
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Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Coin-operated gambling device: The primary subject of the federal Johnson Act; a machine activated by insertion of a coin or token that pays off based on chance.
Electronic gambling device: Video poker terminals, electronic slot machines, and similar devices regulated under state gaming statutes and increasingly under tribal gaming compacts governed by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
Lottery device: Wheels of fortune, number-drawing drums, and similar instruments used in lottery-style games; separately regulated in many states and sometimes excluded from gambling device definitions when operated by licensed lotteries.
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Why It Matters in Research
The term's scope has expanded dramatically across the twentieth century. Older sources — including both historical dictionary entries here — reflect an era when the prototypical gambling device was a physical wheel or mechanical slot. Modern statutes and cases have extended the definition to software, computer programs, and internet-based systems, creating a category of "virtual" gambling devices that the historical definitions cannot anticipate. Researchers examining digital gambling, online poker platforms, or mobile gaming applications should treat historical definitions as starting points only.
Jurisdictional fragmentation is acute. Whether a video poker machine qualifies as a gambling device, a gaming device, or neither depends on the state's licensing framework and the specific statutory text. The same piece of equipment may be a lawful gaming device under one state's tribal compact and a criminal gambling device across the state line. The federal Johnson Act adds another layer: it prohibits interstate transport of gambling devices except to jurisdictions where they are explicitly permitted under state law.
Corpus researchers should also watch for statutory exemptions that carve specific equipment out of the gambling device definition. Amusement machines, skill-based games, and fantasy sports platforms have each generated litigation over whether they fall within or outside statutory definitions. These carve-outs are found in state statutes rather than case law and frequently go unindexed in case reporters.
For tax research, the nature of the device is largely irrelevant to income treatment — gambling winnings are gross income regardless of how they are generated — but the device type may bear on whether a taxpayer is a professional gambler for purposes of Schedule C deduction rules.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's and Bouvier's agree on the functional core: a gambling device is a contrivance that resolves a question of chance for stakes. Both definitions are usefully minimalist in that they do not limit the category to any specific mechanical form, which courts have taken as license to apply the term broadly.
The divergence is in framing. Black's emphasizes unlawfulness as an element of the definition ("unlawful game of chance or hazard"), which embeds a legal conclusion into the definitional threshold. This framing proved awkward as commercial gambling was progressively legalized, because it required courts to distinguish between devices that were inherently unlawful and devices that were lawful in some jurisdictions but not others. Bouvier's formulation — a contrivance to determine winners and losers on a contest of chance — is more functional and has aged better as a neutral descriptor.
Neither historical source anticipates the licensing distinction between gambling devices and gaming devices, the federal Commerce Clause framework, or the electronic and digital forms that dominate modern litigation. The Bouvier citation to a Minnesota reporter (52 N.W. Rep. 42) reflects late nineteenth-century common law elaboration and should not be read as a general statement of modern law.
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Jurisdictional Note
State definitions vary significantly and govern most criminal gambling device prosecutions. Some states define the term to include any device with a gambling purpose; others require that the device be specifically designed for gambling, excluding multi-purpose equipment. Tribal gaming under IGRA adds a federal layer that can preempt state criminal enforcement on tribal lands. Researchers should locate and read the controlling state statute before relying on any general definition.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
criminal_114: Gambling Offenses (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia) — primary reference for criminal prohibition statutes, elements of gambling device offenses, and defenses.
tax_95: Gross Income — Gambling Income and Losses (The Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia) — for income tax treatment of gambling winnings regardless of device type.
tax_138: Itemized Deductions — Gambling Losses (The Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia) — for deductibility rules and the professional gambler distinction.
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