Any court or magistrate having criminal jurisdiction may take judicial notice of the general methods and character of lotteries, policy lotteries or the game called policy, pools or combination bets, and the buying and selling of pools and registering of bets. In the trial of a complaint or indictment to which it may be relevant, any lottery, policy or pool ticket, certificate, slip or check, manifold or other policy or pool book or sheet, or memorandum of any pool or sale of pools, or of a bet or odds, or combination bet, or any other implement, apparatus, materials or articles of a character commonly employed in or in connection with lotteries, policy lotteries or policy, the buying or selling of pools or registering of bets, or other form of gaming, shall be prima facie evidence of the existence and unlawful character of a lottery, policy lottery or game, pool or pools, bet, game or hazard, or other form of gaming in which like articles are commonly used, and that such article has relation thereto; provided, however, that such provisions shall not apply to sports wagering conducting pursuant to chapter 23N.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 271, § 27