Gambling Rules

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Caravaggio, The Cardsharps, c. 1594

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of value (referred to as 'the stakes') on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Gambling thus requires three elements be present: consideration, chance and prize. The outcome of the wager is often immediate, such as a single roll of dice or a spin of a roulette wheel, but longer time frames are also common, allowing wagers on the outcome of a future sports contest or even an entire sports season.

The new rules by the UK gambling commission are having a huge impact on the business. Find out how it impacts your operations. Different games may have different rules-you could also roll craps someone reaches 7, gambling whatever pre-determined way of choosing you desire. Stricter Online Gambling Rules and Conditions. If there is only a 99% probability of a result occurring and a 1% chance it will not, there is an element of risk and you cannot be completely sure that your bet will win. Of course, all bettors work on the concept of odds, with the best bets usually coming in at odds of 1:1 or a 50% chance of winning (or losing) the.

The term gaming in this context typically refers to instances in which the activity has been specifically permitted by law. The two words are not mutually exclusive; i.e., a 'gaming' company offers (legal) 'gambling' activities to the public and may be regulated by one of many gaming control boards, for example, the Nevada Gaming Control Board. However, this distinction is not universally observed in the English-speaking world. For instance, in the UK, the regulator of gambling activities is called the Gambling Commission (not the Gaming Commission). The word gaming is used more frequently since the rise of computer and video games to describe activities that do not necessarily involve wagering, especially online gaming, with the new usage still not having displaced the old usage as the primary definition in common dictionaries.

Gambling is also a major international commercial activity, with the legal gambling market totaling an estimated $335 billion in 2009. In other forms, gambling can be conducted with materials which have a value, but are not real money. For example, players of marbles games might wager marbles, and likewise games of Pogs or Magic: The Gathering can be played with the collectible game pieces (respectively, small discs and trading cards) as stakes, resulting in a meta-game regarding the value of a player's collection of pieces.

History

Religious

Religious perspectives on gambling have been mixed. Ancient Hindu poems like the Gambler's Lament and the Mahabharata testify to the popularity of gambling among ancient Indians. However, the text Arthashastra (c. 4th century BCE) recommends taxation and control of gambling. Religious authorities generally disapprove of gambling. Ancient Jewish authorities frowned on gambling, even disqualifying professional gamblers from testifying in court. The Catholic Church holds the position that there is no moral impediment to gambling, so long as it is fair, all bettors have a reasonable chance of winning, that there is no fraud involved, and the parties involved do not have actual knowledge of the outcome of the bet (unless they have disclosed this knowledge). Gambling has often been seen as having social consequences, as satirized by Balzac. For these social and religious reasons, most legal jurisdictions limit gambling, as advocated by Pascal. Some Islamic nations prohibit gambling; most other countries regulate it.

Origins

Many popular games played in modern casinos originate from Europe and China. Games such as craps, baccarat, roulette, and blackjack originate from different areas of Europe. A version of keno, an ancient Chinese lottery game, is played in casinos around the world. In addition, pai gow poker, a hybrid between pai gow and poker is also played.

Regulation

Many jurisdictions, local as well as national, either ban gambling or heavily control it by licensing. Such regulation generally leads to gambling tourism and illegal gambling in the areas where it is not allowed. The involvement of governments, through regulation and taxation, has led to a close connection between many governments and gaming organizations, where legal gambling provides significant government revenue, such as in Monaco or Macau, China.

There is generally legislation requiring that the odds in gaming devices are statistically random, to prevent manufacturers from making some high-payoff results impossible. Since these high-payoffs have very low probability, a house bias can quite easily be missed unless the odds are checked carefully.

Most jurisdictions that allow gambling require participants to be above a certain age. In some jurisdictions, the gambling age differs depending on the type of gambling. For example, in many American states one must be over 21 to enter a casino, but may buy a lottery ticket after turning 18.

Insurance

Because contracts of insurance have many features in common with wagers, insurance contracts are often distinguished under law as agreements in which either party has an interest in the 'bet-upon' outcome beyond the specific financial terms. E.g.: a 'bet' with an insurer on whether one's house will burn down is not gambling, but rather insurance - as the homeowner has an obvious interest in the continued existence of his/her home independent of the purely financial aspects of the 'bet' (i.e., the insurance policy). Nonetheless, both insurance and gambling contracts are typically considered aleatory contracts under most legal systems, though they are subject to different types of regulation.

Asset recovery

Under common law, particularly English Law (English unjust enrichment), a gambling contract may not give a casino bona fide purchaser status, permitting the recovery of stolen funds in some situations. In Lipkin Gorman v Karpnale Ltd, where a solicitor used stolen funds to gamble at a casino, the House of Lords overruled the High Court's previous verdict, adjudicating that the casino return the stolen funds less those subject to any change of position defence. U.S. Law precedents are somewhat similar.

Sharia law

Although different interpretations of sharia law exists in the Muslim world, there is a consensus among the ulema that gambling is haraam (sinful). In assertions made during its prohibition, Muslim jurists describe gambling as being both unquranic and as being generally harmful to the Muslim community. The Islamic terminology for gambling is maisar however this also has a second definition meaning easy money. In parts of the world that implement full sharia law such as Aceh, punishments for Muslim gamblers can range up to 12 lashes or a one-year prison term and a fine for those who provide a venue for such practises.

Types of gambling

Casino games

While almost any game can be played for money, and any game typically played for money can also be played just for fun, some games are generally offered in a casino setting.

Table games

The Caesars Palace main fountain. The statue is a copy of the ancient Winged Victory of Samothrace.

Gambling Rules In Texas

Mahjong tiles.

Electronic gaming

  • Pachinko
  • Slot machine
  • Video poker
  • Video bingo

Other gambling

  • Keno

Non-casino gambling games

Gambling games that take place outside of casinos include Bingo (as played in the US and UK), dead pool, lotteries, pull-tab games and scratchcards, and Mahjong.

Other non-casino gambling games include:

  • Card games, such as Liar's poker, Bridge, Basset, Lansquenet, Piquet, Put, Teen patti
  • Carnival Games such as The Razzle or Hanky Pank
  • Coin-tossing games such as Head and Tail, Two-up*
  • Confidence tricks such as Three-card Monte or the Shell game
  • Dice-based games, such as Backgammon, Liar's dice, Passe-dix, Hazard, Threes, Pig, or Mexico (or Perudo);

*Although coin tossing isn't usually played in a casino, it has been known to be an official gambling game in some Australian casinos

Fixed-odds betting

Fixed-odds betting and Parimutuel betting frequently occur at many types of sporting events, and political elections. In addition many bookmakers offer fixed odds on a number of non-sports related outcomes, for example the direction and extent of movement of various financial indices, the winner of television competitions such as Big Brother, and election results. Interactive prediction markets also offer trading on these outcomes, with 'shares' of results trading on an open market.

Parimutuel betting

One of the most widespread forms of gambling involves betting on horse or greyhound racing. Wagering may take place through parimutuel pools, or bookmakers may take bets personally. Parimutuel wagers pay off at prices determined by support in the wagering pools, while bookmakers pay off either at the odds offered at the time of accepting the bet; or at the median odds offered by track bookmakers at the time the race started.

Sports betting

Betting on team sports has become an important service industry in many countries. For example, millions of people play the football pools every week in the United Kingdom. In addition to organized sports betting, both legal and illegal, there are many side-betting games played by casual groups of spectators, such as NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket Pools, Super Bowl Squares, Fantasy Sports Leagues with monetary entry fees and winnings, and in-person spectator games like Moundball.

Arbitrage betting

Gambling rules betting

Arbitrage betting is a theoretically risk-free betting system in which every outcome of an event is bet upon so that a known profit will be made by the bettor upon completion of the event, regardless of the outcome. Arbitrage betting is a combination of the ancient art of arbitrage trading and gambling, which has been made possible by the large numbers of bookmakers in the marketplace, creating occasional opportunities for arbitrage.

Other types of betting

One can also bet with another person that a statement is true or false, or that a specified event will happen (a 'back bet') or will not happen (a 'lay bet') within a specified time. This occurs in particular when two people have opposing but strongly held views on truth or events. Not only do the parties hope to gain from the bet, they place the bet also to demonstrate their certainty about the issue. Some means of determining the issue at stake must exist. Sometimes the amount bet remains nominal, demonstrating the outcome as one of principle rather than of financial importance.

Betting exchanges allow consumers to both back and lay at odds of their choice. Similar in some ways to a stock exchange, a bettor may want to back a horse (hoping it will win) or lay a horse (hoping it will lose, effectively acting as bookmaker).

Staking systems

Many betting systems have been created in an attempt to 'beat the house' but no system can make a mathematically unprofitable bet in terms of expected value profitable over time. Widely used systems include:

  • Card counting - Many systems exist for Blackjack to keep track of the ratio of ten values to all others; when this ratio is high the player has an advantage and should increase the amount of their bets. Keeping track of cards dealt confers an advantage in other games as well.
  • Due-column betting - A variation on fixed profits betting in which the bettor sets a target profit and then calculates a bet size that will make this profit, adding any losses to the target.
  • Fixed profits - the stakes vary based on the odds to ensure the same profit from each winning selection.
  • Fixed stakes - a traditional system of staking the same amount on each selection.
  • Kelly - the optimum level to bet to maximize your future median bank level.
  • Martingale - A system based on staking enough each time to recover losses from previous bet(s) until one wins.

Other uses of the term 'gambling'

Gloria Mundi, ... or The Devil addressing the sun. Cartoon showing Charles James Fox standing on a roulette wheel perched atop a globe showing England and continental Europe, the implication is that his penniless state, indicated by turned-out pockets, is due to gambling.

Many risk-return choices are sometimes referred to colloquially as 'gambling.' Whether this terminology is acceptable is a matter of debate:

  • Emotional or physical risk-taking, where the risk-return ratio is not quantifiable (e.g., skydiving, campaigning for political office, asking someone for a date, etc.)
  • Insurance is a method of shifting risk from one party to another. Insurers use actuarial methods to calculate appropriate premiums, which is similar to calculating gambling odds. Insurers set their premiums to obtain a long term positive expected return in the same manner that professional gamblers select which bets to make. While insurance is sometimes distinguished from gambling by the requirement of an insurable interest, the equivalent in gambling is simply betting against one's own best interests (e.g., a sports coach betting against his own team to mitigate the financial repercussions of a losing season).
  • Situations where the possible return is of secondary importance to the wager/purchase (e.g. entering a raffle in support of a charitable cause)

Investments are also usually not considered gambling, although some investments can involve significant risk. Examples of investments include stocks, bonds and real estate. Starting a business can also be considered a form of investment. Investments are generally not considered gambling when they meet the following criteria:

  • Economic utility
  • Positive expected returns (at least in the long term)
  • Underlying value independent of the risk being undertaken

Some speculative investment activities are particularly risky, but are sometimes perceived to be different from gambling:

  • Foreign currency exchange (forex) transactions
  • Prediction markets
  • Securities derivatives, such as options or futures, where the value of the derivative is dependent on the value of the underlying asset at a specific point in time (typically the derivative's associated expiration date)
Rules

Problem gambling

Read main article: Problem gambling

Studies show that though many people participate in gambling as a form of recreation or even as a means to gain an income, gambling, like any behavior which involves variation in brain chemistry, can become a harmful, behavioral addiction. Reinforcement schedules may also make gamblers persist in gambling even after repeated losses.

The Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky (himself a problem gambler) portrays in his novella The Gambler the psychological implications of gambling and how gambling can affect gamblers. He also associates gambling and the idea of 'getting rich quick', suggesting that Russians may have a particular affinity for gambling. Dostoevsky shows the effect of betting money for the chance of gaining more in 19th-century Europe. The association between Russians and gambling has fed legends of the origins of Russian roulette.

Read more:

Gambling Rules In India


COMMENTS

Vermont’s laws concerning gambling and break open tickets can be found at 13 V.S.A. chapter 51 and 31 V.S.A. chapter 23. The following is a quick summary of those laws, but you should consult the statutes themselves for a complete understanding of the requirements for gambling and break open tickets.

What are the gambling laws?

Professional gambling is illegal in Vermont. The purpose of the gambling laws is to ensure that only nonprofit and fraternal organizations operate games of chance and to ensure that the proceeds from the games provide direct support to charitable, religious, educational, or civic undertakings. All proceeds raised by a game of chance must be used exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, and civic undertakings, after deducting certain expenses specifically allowed by statute. Political parties may also organize raffles provided the proceeds are used in undertakings consistent with the purpose of the party.

Who may operate games of chance?

Only bona fide nonprofit organizations that have engaged in charitable, educational, religious or civic activities in Vermont may operate games of chance. Bona fide nonprofits include nonprofit corporations that qualify for tax exempt status under federal law (501(c) status), churches, schools, fire departments, municipalities, fraternal organizations and agricultural fairs. The nonprofit must have been engaged in charitable activities for at least one year prior to the game of chance.

What types of gambling are allowed?

The gambling law allows nonprofits to operate games of chance like raffles, bingo, card games and “break-open” tickets. Slot machines and other mechanical gambling devices such as “Cherry Master” or “Money Machines” are prohibited.

Irs Gambling Rules

What prizes are allowed?

As a general rule, prizes are limited to $400 per game. A $1,000 prize may be offered at one game each day. A $5,000 prize may be offered once a month. A motor vehicle, boat, or firearm worth up to $50,000 may be offered as a prize once a year. Exception: A nonprofit organization may exceed the prize limitations four days per year, so long as the days are at least 20 days apart. The total prize money offered for all games on that day must not be more than $50,000.

What expenses are allowed?

Rules

The entire proceeds from break-open ticket sales on premises licensed to sell alcoholic beverages must be used for charitable purposes. For other games of chance (for example, bingo) the law allows for the deduction of reasonable expenses, as determined by fair market value, to rent a hall for a gambling event, to rent equipment to run the event, and for advertising. Prizes and payments to employees (within limits) may also be paid from gambling proceeds. All remaining proceeds must be used for benevolent purposes.

Can nonprofits pay employees to operate the games?

Most nonprofit organizations rely on volunteers to run their gambling events. However, a nonprofit may spend up to $15,000 a year to pay all persons engaged in any way to organize or execute games of chance. No individual can earn more than $2,000 per year working at gambling events, no matter how many nonprofit organizations the person works for. Exception: In calculating the payroll, only wages for gambling activities are counted against the $15,000/organization and the $2,000/employee limits. Refreshments and meals given to workers are not included.

How often can bingo, lottery, and raffle events be held?

An organization may hold games twice a week. Nonprofits can operate games on three consecutive days twice a year, so long as there are at least 90 days between each three-day event. Generally, the same location cannot be used for gambling activities more than twice a week. However, nonprofits in existence on January 1, 1994 can share a location and each may use it twice a week for ordinary gambling events.

How often can “Casino Night” events be held?

A nonprofit organization may organize and execute no more than one casino night in any calendar month. A location owned by a nonprofit may be the site of no more than two casino events in any calendar month as long as there are at least 10 days between each event. A location not owned by a nonprofit may be the site of no more than one casino event in any calendar quarter or three casino event in any calendar year as long as there are at least 15 days between each event.

How often can “Agricultural fairs” be held?

Agricultural fairs may exceed the two days per week limit and conduct games on 12 consecutive days once a year.

Are there any laws which specifically apply to the sale of break-open tickets?

A license must be obtained from the Commissioner of Liquor Control prior to manufacturing or selling and distributing break open tickets for resale. License holders must comply with the requirement to report certain information to the Department of Liquor Control. Only nonprofit organizations can resell break-open tickets. The entire proceeds from the sale of break-open tickets at premises licensed to sell alcoholic beverages (except prizes, the wholesale cost of the tickets, and certain legal and accounting expenses) must be used for charitable purposes.

Can “Break-Open” tickets be sold at bars?

Gambling Rules In California

A qualified non-profit organization (for example, a fraternal organization) can sell break-open tickets at its own licensed premises. A qualified non-profit organization can also sell break-open tickets at a for-profit bar, but they must comply with the requirement to report certain information to the Department of Liquor Control.

Gambling Rules Pathfinder

Are there any other restrictions on gambling?

Convicted felons cannot organize or execute a gambling event. Minors can work on the site — for example, selling food and drinks — but cannot work the games. No one can work and gamble at the same event.

What are the reporting requirements?

If a nonprofit conducts gambling activities and is required to file federal tax form 990 or 990T it must file copies of the federal forms with the State tax department within 30 days of the federal filing date. Nonprofits not required to file 990 or 990T forms must file State form B-3 on or before June 15 for the previous calendar year if they have gambling gross receipts of more than $10,000. Forms are available from the State tax department.

Is there a withholding requirement?

Organizations required to withhold federal income taxes from gambling winnings (on certain prizes over $7,500) must also withhold State taxes. The State income tax withheld must be reported and paid over to the State tax department.

Are nonprofit organizations subject to taxes on gambling income?

Qualified nonprofits are not subject to State income taxes. They may be subject to the federal income tax if their gambling income is “unrelated business income.”

What are the penalties for violating the gambling laws?

Rules

Penalties range up to $100,000 and three years in jail for serious offenses. A bar can also have its liquor license suspended or have an injunction placed upon it.

Gambling Rules In Florida

Is there a licensing or advance approval requirement to operate and execute games of chance to conduct gambling events for nonprofits?

There are no licensing requirements to simply operate any of these games in Vermont. However, you should review the applicable statutes concerning the operation and execution of these games, or consult with a private attorney to ensure compliance with all laws.

A license must be obtained from the Commissioner of Liquor Control prior to manufacturing or selling and distributing break open tickets for resale.

Gaming Laws By State

Furthermore, an individual who possesses a liquor license who wants to conduct games of chance on licensed premises must first obtain a permit from the Department of Liquor control and will be subject to financial disclosure requirements.

State

Whom should I call regarding potential violations of the laws and regulations concerning gambling?

You should consult your local police agency, your county State’s Attorney, the Tax Department, The Department of Liquor Control, or the Office of the Attorney General.

Consumer Fraud Rule CF 109 – Contests and Prizes