United States v. Walter Odel Graham and Patricia Ann Taylor, United States of America v. Lonnie Patrick

Appellants Graham, Taylor and Patrick were convicted after trial to the court of conducting an illegal gambling business [ 18 U.S.C. § 1955 ], consisting of dice and “blackjack” games. Their main contentions on appeal are that their acts were not within the reach of the federal statute in that the dice game was not a “banking or percentage game” proscribed by California Penal Code § 330 and that the business did not meet the “substantially continuous operation” or “gross revenue” requirement of Section 1955(b)(l)(iii). We reject their contentions and affirm.

An “illegal gambling business” under Section 1955(b)(1) is one which:

(Emphasis added.)

This court recently upheld Section 1955 against constitutional attack. United States v. Sacco, 491 F.2d 995 (9th Cir. 1974) (en banc).

We are of course governed by the fundamental rule on appeal that the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the government. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80 , 62 S.Ct. 457, 469 , 86 L.Ed. 680, 704 (1942); Kay v. United States, 421 F.2d 1007, 1010 (9th Cir. 1970). With this standard in mind, our scrutiny of the record convinces us that the government proved each element…