An Equitable Remedy to Combat Gambling in Illinois
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Chicago-Kent Law Review Volume 28 Issue 4 Article 1 September 1950 An Equitable Remedy to Combat Gambling in Illinois Russell Baker Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Russell Baker, An Equitable Remedy to Combat Gambling in Illinois, 28 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 287 (1950). Available at: https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview/vol28/iss4/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons @ IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chicago-Kent Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarly Commons @ IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. CHICAGO-KENT LAW REVIEW Copyright 1950, Chicago-Kent College of Law VOLUME 28 SEPTEMBER, 1950 NUMBER 4 AN EQUITABLE REMEDY TO COMBAT GAMBLING IN ILLINOIS Russell Baker' O NB OF THB largest, certainly one of the most lucrative, enterprises operating in this country today is the illegal syndicated gambling racket. Information uncovered by the Kefauver Committee' makes it apparent that big-time gambling is responsible for much of the crime, great and small, that is committed in the country from day to day. Yet, by and large, efforts directed at the suppression of this organized racket have been pitiful in terms of results that have been accomplished. The fault probably does not lie in the state of the law. The laws of Illi- nois, for example, are complete and abundant on the subject of gambling as a crime and are amply fortified with provisions for punishment.2 Enforcement of these plain, simple strictures, how- ever, has become a farce. The experience of one Illinois county alone will demonstrate the truth of this last statement. In the Municipal Court of Chi- cago, as well as in certain of the Justice of the Peace courts * Member, Illinois Bar. Secretary, Chicago Crime Commission. Author: Manual on the Law of Arrest, Search and Seizure (Chicago Crime Commission, 1947), and ,of "The Western Hemisphere Trade Corporation: A Problem in the Law of Sales," .. 2 Tul. L. Rev. 229-63 (1947). Assistance in the research and preparation of this ,rticle was given by Donald fJ. Donovan. , U. S. Senate Committee Investigating Organized Crime in the United States. 2 See Ill. Rev. Stat. 1949, Vol. 1, Ch. 38, §§ 324-48. 287 CHICAGO-KENT LAW REVIEW in the outlying county areas, judges have ordered evidence of gambling suppressed because of an improper observance of requirements pertaining to search and seizure. 3 In the Criminal Court of Cook County, as well as in other state tribunals of equal rank, convictions for the violation of gambling laws have been, to say the least, infrequent.4 Police officers charged with the duty of enforcing law, likewise have seldom been convicted for their failure to perform their bounden duty in relation to the suppression of gambling. One illustration should suffice. An acting chief of police for Calumet City was indicted in 1949 by the grand jury of Cook County for misconduct as a municipal officer.5 At the ensuing trial, an assist- ant state's attorney testified that he had been studying the exist- ence of wide-open gambling in that city for the preceding year. The state's attorney himself also testified that he had warned the acting chief of police that "if it [gambling] wasn't stopped, he [the defendant] would face the grand jury. ' 6 The defendant claimed that there were "not enough officers to handle the job," as he had only thirteen policemen to watch over some 152 taverns in the city.7 A trial jury acquitted the defendant after seventy- five minutes of deliberation.' Even where convictions are obtained, the fact is that the pen- 3 The general doctrines relating to search and seizure are set forth in People v. Dent, 371 Ill. 33, 19 N. E. (2d) 1020 (1939), and Early v. People, 117 Ill. 608 (1904). In particular, see People v. Two Roulette Wheels and Tables, 326 Ill. App. 143, 61 N. E. (2d) 277 (1945). 4 The Chicago Police Department Report, 1949, shows that 8,649 arrested per- sons were charged with gambling, but only 665 of them were found guilty. 5 See People v. Wleklinski, Docket No. 49-2401, Criminal Court of Cook County, Illinois. 6 See Chicago Sun-Times under date of March 23, 1950; Chicago Tribue. De- cember 1, 1949. 7 Ibid., March 25, 1950. s Ibid., March 28, 1950. A similar result may be observed in People v. Flynn, 375 Ill. 306, 31 N. E. (2d) 591 (1941). The mayor of Champaign had there been indicted for failure to close gambling houses but was ordered acquitted because of a lack of sufficient proof that he knew where the gambling houses were located. In People v. Wigglesworth, Docket No. 49-1089, Criminal Court of Cook County, Illinois, the defendant, police chief for Melrose Park, was acquitted on charges of misfeasance and nonfeasance for allowing gambling to flourish in his com- munity. The jury indicated that it believed that the "higher-ups," instead of the defendant, should have been called on to explain the presence of gambling: Chicago Sun-Times, October 2, 1949. EQUITABLE RELIEF AGAINST GAMBLING alties imposed in gambling cases offer little or no discouragement so long as the gambling house proprietor or operator is able to avoid imprisonmentY The records are replete with instances where the same gambling house, located on the same piece of real estate, has been successfully raided on numerous occasions with successive convictions for gambling entered against the same or different keepers. 10 A strong example of this is to be found in the record relating to one "bookie" located in Chicago Heights. It was raided a total of eighteen times from January, 1947, to October, 1949, or at the rate of a little better than one raid every two months. Thirteen different keepers were arrested in these eighteen raids. Two of them were convicted and fined three times each. One keeper was convicted twice. The total realized from fines imposed during this period was $1,882, equal to about $55.00 for each month of operation. Anyone with experience would realize these levies amounted to only a minor portion of the gambler's "take," and apparently had no more deterrent effect than any other item of "overhead." Still more rarely invoked is that provision of the Criminal Code which makes it a crime to knowingly rent property for gambling purposes or to allow premises to be used in that connection.' It has been a characteristic of those law enforcement methods cur- rently in use in Cook County to pass up the responsibility of the owner, lessee, or operator of real estate who permits his premises to be used for illegal gambling purposes. He is seldom arrested and punished for his violation of the law, although he is as guilty 9 Ill. Rev. Stat. 1949, Vol. 1, Ch. 38, § 325, purports to require a minimum fine for the first conviction, a minimum fine and imprisonment in the county jail for the second, while the third conviction is supposed to produce a minimum fine and also a minimum term in the penitentiary. See also Ch. 38, §§ 326, 341 and 343. 10 The Sheriff of Cook County, under date of November 3. 1950, has supplied a report to the Chicago Crime Commission covering the preceding four years. It lists, among other things, twenty-eight different places where handbooks were found in operation. These places were raided a total of 201 times, for an average of seven raids on each. The average fine for the 201 raids was $86.71. The report further indicates that a total of 127 different keepers were arrested in 178 of these raids. The rapidity of change in keepers would appear to be indicative of a desire to avoid a prison penalty. 11 Ill. Rev. Stat. 1949, Vol. 1, Ch. 38, § 325. CHICAGO-KENT LAW REVIEW of a crime as is the operator of the gambling establishment, 12 perhaps because of difficulty experienced in producing evidence of the kind or sufficiency required by the statute.13 This brief review of the realities of the problem makes it apparent that there is fault somewhere, if not in existing law, then in its enforcement. Regardless where the fault lies, good government suffers, and will continue to suffer, unless some new, additional, and more effective weapon is made available. It is submitted that if the criminal tribunals cannot meet the rude chal- lenge offered by organized gambling to the rule of law, peace, and order, then a court of equity, one already armed with an adequate supply of equitable remedies, can furnish the needed protection. The weapon which such a court could wield to attain that end is the familiar, but powerful, equitable injunction against the maintenance of a nuisance. Three general classifications of public or common nuisance were known to the common law. Certain acts were there declared to be nuisances because they outraged public decency ;14 others, because they injuriously affected public health.", In the third 12 Convictions have been sustained in People v. Viskniskki, 155 Il. App. 292 (1910), affirmed in 255 Ill. 384, 99 N. E. 621 (1912) ; People v. Leach, 143 Ill. App. 442 (1908) ; People v. Brewer, 142 I1. App. 610 (1908) ; People v. Ward, 23 Ill. App. 510 (1887). Reversal of conviction was ordered in People v. O'Connor, 334 Ill. App. 27, 78 N. E. (2d) 323 (1948); People v. Brickey, 332 Il1.