The legal effect of Section 12 of the Public Gambling Act, 1867 is that:

Section 12 states that nothing in the foregoing provisions shall "apply to any game of mere skill wherever played", and section 13 itself is limited to games "not being a game of mere skill". A skill game therefore falls outside the Act whether or not money is staked and wherever it is played. It is not punished more lightly; it is not punished under the Act at all.