When a tip-off indicates there is evidence of gambling taking place in the passenger compartment of a car, can police arrest the occupants for gambling?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Carson, A139953 (Cal. App. 2015):

where there are signs of a criminal enterprise, is another matter. (Pringle, supra, at pp. 371-374 ["any or all" of three men in car could be arrested for possession of contraband found throughout passenger compartment of car when quantity of drugs and cash indicated dealing that a perpetrator would seek to hide from innocents]; People v. Schmitz (2012) 55 Cal.4th 909, 924 ["the law does not presume that a front seat passenger has nothing to do with items located elsewhere in the passenger compartment of a car"].)

In People v. Hughes (1966) 240 Cal.App.2d 615, for example, police received a tip about gambling taking place. While standing on the sidewalk outside the reported location, police heard statements suggestive of gambling emanating from within. Believing there was a dice game in progress, police approached the apartment door. Through a crack beneath the doorbell, they observed "several persons, some standing and some sitting, engaged in rolling dice and, after the dice throws, passing money among them." (Id. at pp. 616-617.) The police then arrested the occupants for gambling. (Id. at p. 617.) The appellate court concluded, "[t]he language heard by the officers was, itself, sufficient to give them reasonable cause to believe that the offense of gambling was then and there being committed." (Ibid.)

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