Comments on: Is sports betting legal if you bundle it with furniture?

By: Furniture Store Fan

Furniture Store Fan — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:25:58 +0000

That is clever marketing for the furniture store. The insurance covers the losses and they win either way. The free press surely helped get their name in front of some potential new customers.

Gambling and sports are always going to happened. As they said in Caddyshack, “Gambling is illegal at Bushwood”.

By: sportsbook

sportsbook — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:59:29 +0000

And no doubt the furniture store took out insurance on the promotion. This is no different than win a free car hole in one contests and the like. That raises the question whether insurance is gambling. Normally purchasing insurance is considered the opposite of gambling which begs the question that selling insurance therefor must be gambling.

By: Chris. F. Masse

Chris. F. Masse — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:42:38 +0000

“Tatelman bought an insurance policy to cover any losses in the event the Sox win the title.”

As we all know (via Marginal Revolution some time ago), the first X Prize ($10 million) was also paid by a “hole-in-one” insurance contract.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6167761/.

By: Michael Giberson

Michael Giberson — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:50:37 +0000

Ah, checked the store’s website: lamp idea no good, the promotion required purchase of a mattress, dining table, sofa, or bed.

Here is a link to the promotion page, which has links to Terms and Conditions and FAQs pages. Note the FAQ answer:

Per IRS regulations, Rebate Claim Forms valued at $600.00 and above will be issued a 2007 1099 Form from Jordan’s Furniture and will be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

Scratch the idea for a liquid little prediction market in Boston.

By: Michael Giberson

Michael Giberson — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:21:53 +0000

If I were to purchase, say, a lamp from a customer who bought it from the store during the promotion, and then the Red Sox win, could I claim the payout?

Or how about a purely financial derivative — I buy the payout option from the lamp owner, but not the lamp. (I have plenty of lamps already, thanks.) The option is worth either $0 or the price of the lamp, depending upon whether the Sox win.

Given 30,000 orders and assuming an average order value of $1,200 each, that is $36,000,000 in potential claims. If the claims were tradable, seems like you could have a pretty liquid little prediction market.

By: Jason Ruspini

Jason Ruspini — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:03:59 +0000

It’s all ridiculous and frustrating of course, but I think it would only be a problem if they said that one couch was $1500 and an identical one was $1600 but came with the Red Sox option, otherwise there is no consideration in excess of the couch price. (It might likewise be a problem if they raised prices just before the contest and advertised a “sale” right after the contest.)