---
kind: "section"
citation: "15 U.S.C. § 1178"
title: "15"
title_heading: "Commerce and Trade"
number: "1178"
heading: "Nonapplicability of chapter to certain machines and devices"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/15/1178"
units:
  - "Chapter 24 — Transportation of Gambling Devices"
---

# §1178. Nonapplicability of chapter to certain machines and devices


None of the provisions of this chapter shall be construed to apply—

- (1) to any machine or mechanical [device](/usc/15/55.md?p=d) designed and manufactured primarily for use at a racetrack in connection with parimutuel betting,
- (2) to any machine or mechanical [device](/usc/15/55.md?p=d), such as a coin-operated bowling alley, shuffleboard, marble machine (a so-called pinball machine), or mechanical gun, which is not designed and manufactured primarily for use in connection with gambling, and (A) which when operated does not deliver, as a result of the application of an element of chance, any money or property, or (B) by the operation of which a [person](/usc/15/7a.md?p=6) may not become entitled to receive, as the result of the application of an element of chance, any money or property, or
- (3) to any so-called claw, crane, or digger machine and similar [devices](/usc/15/55.md?p=d) which are not operated by coin, are actuated by a crank, and are designed and manufactured primarily for use at carnivals or county or [State](/usc/15/1171.md?p=b) fairs.

## Source credit

(Jan. 2, 1951, ch. 1194, § 9, as added Pub. L. 87–840, § 6, Oct. 18, 1962, 76 Stat. 1077.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section effective on sixtieth day after Oct. 18, 1962, see section 7 of Pub. L. 87–840, set out as an Effective Date of 1962 Amendment note under section 1171 of this title.