The legislature approved an act on February 12, 1798, to nullify all agreements relative to gambling losses and to make their recovery
possible. All documents providing for payment of gambling losses "shall be utterly void, frustrate and of none effect to all intents and
purposes whatsoever: any law, usage or custom to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding." This provision was to extend to losses
suffered "at cards, dice tables, tennis bowles, or any other game or games whatsoever." The list also included "horse racing, cockfighting
or any other sport or pastime."
The act also invalidated "any conveyance or lease of kind, tenements, or hereditaments sold, dismissed, or mortgaged or other transfer of slaves
or other personal effects" to pay off gambling debts. Furthermore, any person losing more than forty shillings in any twenty-four-hour period was
to have up to three months to sue for recovery "in any court of record within this commonwealth."
Advertisement from the Forrest F. Moore collection on cockfighting, 1894-1965. Although cockfighting is now illegal in Kentucky, the "sport" continued to be prevalent in the state well into the 1950s. This undated advertising card from Bell County indicates just how popular and profitable the games were. Kentucky Historical Society Collections.
