Also known as: games of chance · game of skill contrast
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A contest whose outcome is determined primarily by luck rather than skill of the participants. The classification turns on which element dominates the result.
Greta Goldstein wins $50,000 in a state-run lottery. She assigns her right to receive the prize payments to Glacier Energy as security for a loan. Under the UCC the assignment creates a security interest in an account because the payments qualify as winnings in a game of chance.
Gary Goldman operates an illegal numbers game from a storefront. Federal agents seize the cash and the booth itself. The court must decide whether the forfeiture constitutes an excessive fine given the connection between the property and the game of chance.
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Genevieve Gardner serves on a civil jury. During voir dire she denies any gambling activity. After the verdict the losing party seeks to introduce evidence that Gardner regularly plays games of chance. The court applies the no-impeachment rule to bar the inquiry into deliberations.
Gerald Gibson is convicted after jurors play cards in the deliberation room. Post-verdict affidavits reveal that one juror made racially charged statements while the group treated the outcome like a game of chance. The trial court must determine whether the statements overcome the usual bar on juror testimony.
Gustavo Gutierrez's tribe seeks to operate a new casino offering games of chance. The state refuses to negotiate a compact. The tribe sues in federal court and the state raises sovereign immunity as a bar to the action.
Guillermo Guzman owns a store that sells tickets for a weekly game of chance. State law prohibits the sale on Sundays. Guzman claims the restriction violates equal protection because other retail sales remain lawful on that day.
Black's defines a game of chance as one whose outcome is determined by luck rather than skill. The test focuses on which element dominates the result rather than whether some skill is present.
UCC section 9-102(a)(2) expressly includes winnings in a lottery or other game of chance operated or sponsored by a state or authorized person. The right to payment qualifies as an account whether or not it has been earned by performance.
Section 9-309(14) provides an automatic perfection rule for a sale by an individual of an account that is a right to payment of winnings in a lottery or other game of chance.
…11, 99 Eng. Rep. 944 (K. B. 1785). There, Lord Mansfield excluded juror testimony that the jury had decided the case through a game of chance. The Mansfield rule, as it came to be known, prohibited jurors, after the verdict was entered, from testifying either about their subjective mental processes or about objective events that…