Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | January 2014 34 Features G mbling and the law insurance is actually trying to avoid risk did not work in this case. Business owners do not think they have lost bets when they do not have a fire, any more than when they hire security guards who never have to draw their guns. But while a theater has a business reason for insuring against the death of its box-office draw, even the biggest fan does not. In the US and England, courts and legislatures developed the “insurable governors see lotteries as essential to balancing state budgets. Insurance eventually overcame its gambling roots because it was seen as creating a benefit for the general public, as an efficient way of spreading and lessening risk. Still, insurance had to be outlawed if the sole purpose was merely to make money by betting. Pure speculation was not only of questionable morality, but also considered economically inefficient, because it did not contribute anything to the greater society. Advocates for expanding gaming need to study history to see how insurance succeeded. Insurance is, by far, the largest form of legal gambling. In fact, by some standards, the insurance industry is the largest industry in the world. © 2013, I. Nelson Rose. Prof. Rose is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on gambling law, and is a consultant and expert witness for governments, industry and players. His latest books, INTERNET GAMING LAW (1st and 2nd editions), BLACKJACK AND THE LAW , GAMING LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS and GAMING LAW IN A NUTSHELL are available through his website, www.GAMBLINGANDTHELAW.com . interest” rule. You cannot take out a life insurance policy on someone you have no connection with. That would be too much like making a bet that another person would die. Plus, government is afraid that you might be tempted to do something to try to increase your chances of winning. The insurance industry won its battle to remain legal by showing that true insurance was different from pure speculation. This is similar to the arguments that advocates for Internet poker are making today. Poker sites would like to have online casino operators as allies. But they know they have more chance of winning over religious conservative Republicans and paternalistic liberal Democrats if they show that poker is a game of skill. Of course it is an easy argument to make. As noted poker author Richard Sparks observed: “I’ve been outplayed far too often on the Internet not to have learned the hard way that poker is, very sadly, a game in which skill predominates.” State lotteries can’t make this argument. But they were originally sold as ways of helping education or the elderly. They successfully shifted their image, to the public, as being merely another form of entertainment; while legislators and In the US and England, courts and legislatures developed the “insurable interest” rule. You cannot take out a life insurance policy on someone you have no connection with. That would be too much like making a bet that another person would die. Advocates for expanding gaming need to study history to see how insurance succeeded. Insurance is, by far, the largest form of legal gambling.