United States v. Victor Calamaro

HASTIE, Circuit Judge.

The special occupational tax, recently imposed on gamblers by Section 471(a) of the Revenue Act of 1951, 65 Stat. 531, 26 U.S.C. § 3285 et seq., and the attendant criminal sanctions are bringing bizarre problems to the national courts. Witness the present appeal, which turns on a question of job classification in the so-called numbers racket.

The legislative scheme makes a person, who engages in a type of gambling activity which is taxable under Section 3290 of Title 26 of the United States Code without having paid the tax, guilty of a crime under Section 3294(a) of that…