In Re McKelvey

WOOD, J.

Petitioners were arrested by the chief of police of Culver City on the charge of violating section 337a of the Penal Code. They contend this section of the code has been repealed and that in the event that it is held that the section has not been repealed the proceedings by which they have been detained are in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Section 337a of the Penal Code prohibits all kinds of gambling upon the result of contests: “of skill, speed or power of endurance of man or beast, or between men, beasts, or mechanical apparatus, or upon the result, or purported result, of any lot, chance, casualty, unknown or contingent event whatsoever”. Long after this section was enacted the legislature in 1933 passed the Horse Racing Act by which a board to be known as the California Horse Racing Board was created. The act provides for the regulating and licensing of horse racing and wagering thereon and that the wagering must be done only at the race track enclosures and under the parimutuel system. By an amendment to the Constitution of California adopted by vote of the people the provisions of the Horse Racing Act were ratified.

The Horse Racing Act contained the provision that “all acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed” and it is the contention of petitioners that section 337a of the Penal Code was repealed by the inclusion of this provision in the Horse Racing Act. This contention cannot be sustained. Section 337a is not specifically referred to in the repealing clause of the Horse Racing Act. The repealing clause has no greater force than a repeal by implication. Every valid statute repeals by implication all prior statutes in conflict with it.

(Matter of Clary,

149 Cal. 732 [87 Pac. 580].) Repeals by implication are not favored.

(Niceley

v.

City of Madera,

111 Cal. App. 731 [296 Pac.

[96]

306];

Riley