Legalized Gambling when Booking RV Sites (Sensible Weather)

ctechbob

ctechbob

Well-known member
That's pretty much what it amounts to. Betting on whether it is going to rain on your trip or not. I thought it was interesting since it is the first time I've seen it. Given that the weather here in the south is pretty variable this time of year, with rain more often than not, I gambled with our Cherokee NC booking. We'll see if it pays off, or at least covers the $12.50 I spent.


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I didn't know there was such a service. The play statistical data for the area and bet that over many insured days, they will come make a profit. Much like any other form of insurance.

This reminds me of agricultural crop insurance. It's expensive, but in a drought year, it can save you huge $ in lost yields. It also reminds me of Las Vegas. The odd are always slightly in favor of the house.
 
Wayne said:
I didn't know there was such a service. The play statistical data for the area and bet that over many insured days, they will come make a profit. Much like any other form of insurance.

This reminds me of agricultural crop insurance. It's expensive, but in a drought year, it can save you huge $ in lost yields. It also reminds me of Las Vegas. The odd are always slightly in favor of the house.
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Yep. When boiled down to brass tacks, most insurance is just a form of gambling. Some of it is mandated by the state.

If you could predict everything, we wouldn't need it and no one would issue it. It is a pretty interesting mental exercise to do.

Well, except for national flood insurance. That is a whole separate beast and is probably where Florida hurricane insurance is headed. Not really 'insurance' in a true sense of the word as if you have to get your house insured on the national flood plan, there's a good chance that you're getting leveled by a flood on a regular basis. Been many years since I was a licensed P&C agent though, but things are probably still the same.
 
ctechbob said:
If you could predict everything, we wouldn't need it and no one would issue it.
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And those who do need it would be out of luck, because the risk pool would be made up of only payouts. If any company would insure a 100% loss pool, then the premiums would be astronomically expensive. That's kind of what high risk auto insurance is.

Those of us who drive carefully subsidize those who are careless.
 
ctechbob said:
Well, except for national flood insurance. That is a whole separate beast and is probably where Florida hurricane insurance is headed. Not really 'insurance' in a true sense of the word as if you have to get your house insured on the national flood plan, there's a good chance that you're getting leveled by a flood on a regular basis. Been many years since I was a licensed P&C agent though, but things are probably still the same.
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some people will buy insurance for everything. I suspect they wouldn't offer it if they didn't make money off of it.. :) kinda like road hazard protection for tires.. couple times I have bought tires saleman was flabbergasted that I wouldn't buy the road hazard protection.. but when I told him I had owned about 25 vehicles over the last 40 years I have been driving and have what amount to 2 tire failures that might have paid out over the 40 year period, he was unable to explain to me why it made financial sense to buy insurance against a tire failure. :) How many tires do yall think I have purchased in my life.? I'm guessing between 100 and 200, so I have about a 1% chance I will need a tire that the insurance would cover... how much would I have spent over the years if I purchased tire insurance for every one of those two hundred tires I have purchased..yeah, sucker bet.

since I am in Fla, I think the requirement to make flood insurance mandatory is mostly some form of collusion between real estate agencies and the insurance industry so that people that have property in very flood prone areas are subsidized by people who have almost no risk of it..

For instance they changed the flood zone map where I live, to include the whole area whereas before we were a low risk zone .
Hurricane Irma dumped 12 inches of rain where I live, in about a one day period. yet I was high and dry.. I think I would probably need to see something in the magnitude of 50 inches of rain in one shot for the ptential of water to be on the floor level of my house.. so yeah, flood insurance only feeds itself if you force everyone to have it.
 
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MSCH said:
some people will buy insurance for everything. I suspect they wouldn't offer it if they didn't make money off of it.. :) kinda like road hazard protection for tires.. couple times I have bought tires saleman was flabbergasted that I wouldn't buy the road hazard protection.. but when I told him I had owned about 25 vehicles over the last 40 years I have been driving and have what amount to 2 tire failures that might have paid out over the 40 year period, he was unable to explain to me why it made financial sense to buy insurance against a tire failure. :) How many tires do yall think I have purchased in my life.? I'm guessing between 100 and 200, so I have about a 1% chance I will need a tire that the insurance would cover... how much would I have spent over the years if I purchased tire insurance for every one of those two hundred tires I have purchased..yeah, sucker bet.

since I am in Fla, I think the requirement to make flood insurance mandatory is mostly some form of collusion between real estate agencies and the insurance industry so that people that have property in very flood prone areas are subsidized by people who have almost no risk of it..

For instance they changed the flood zone map where I live, to include the whole area whereas before we were a low risk zone .
Hurricane Irma dumped 12 inches of rain where I live, in about a one day period. yet I was high and dry.. I think I would probably need to see something in the magnitude of 50 inches of rain in one shot for the ptential of water to be on the floor level of my house.. so yeah, flood insurance only feeds itself if you force everyone to have it.
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They do this solely to increase the size of the risk pool. The larger the pool gets the less it costs per contract to offer insurance. You are absolutely correct, the people who don't need flood insurance are subsidizing the people who do need insurance.
 
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where I live you can look at the land and tell if it is prone to staying waterlogged... its south Floriduh, so it is as flat as a table... so what amounts tto being low lying may only be a few inches of elevation less than somewhere down the street. for instance if it is primarily pine and palmetto, it is dry as thos epines dont grow where they have to survive being under water or water logged for long periods of time..... if it has more cypress than anything else it stays wet and probably has ponds in it during the wet season... if it has some oaks and willow it is in between.
 
Wayne said:
I have said for a long time that gambling if for people who are bad at math.
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yes Wayne.. most people aren't rational... perfect example... normal Powerball prize might be 20 to 40 million bucks.... and the same people as always buy powerball tickets... but if that prize goes up to500 million or more powerball ticket sales go thru the roof... explain why 20 or 30 million bucks isn't enough to make your day but the prospect of winning 500 million excites them enough that a bunch of people start buying tickets.?
 
Last week I worked a few days in the greater Las Vegas and Pahrump area. Spent a lot of time behind the wheel of my rental car. Seemed every radio station was focused on sports odds. I kept turning the knob, but discussion was always on sports betting. I think I will avoid Nevada whenever possible as a gambling centered society is not a match for me.
 
GON said:
Last week I work a few days in the greater Las Vegas and Pahrump area. Spent a lot of time behind the wheel of my rental car. Seemed every radio station was focused on sports odds. I kept turning the knob, but discussion was always on sports betting. I think I will avoid Nevada whenever possible as a gambling centered society is not a match for me.
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I don't disagree with that.

I'll buy a lottery ticket every now and then, and if I happen to be staying at a casino for a conference or something of the like I'll spend maybe $20 tops, but other than that, it is just throwing money down the drain.
 
ctechbob said:
I don't disagree with that.

I'll buy a lottery ticket every now and then, and if I happen to be staying at a casino for a conference or something of the like I'll spend maybe $20 tops, but other than that, it is just throwing money down the drain.
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Mega billionaire and recent/new resident of Florida (from Illinois) Ken Griffin is fighting the casino lobby desire to expand legalized gambling in Florida. Ken believes legalized gambling causes substantial and permanent harm to a society, enough so that he is fighting the casino lobby.
 
GON said:
Mega billionaire and recent/new resident of Florida (from Illinois) Ken Griffin is fighting the casino lobby desire to expand legalized gambling in Florida. Ken believes legalized gambling causes substantial and permanent harm to a society, enough so that he is fighting the casino lobby.
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It seems to be spreading for sure. I'm fairly ambivalent, but I live hours from the nearest casino so I don't have first-hand experience with what they do to communities.

Although, our trip this week was supposed to be at the Harrah's Cherokee for the weekend for a volleyball tournament that got canceled. Now we don't have to go to the casino and can do other things.
 
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Ohh, and to bring it (sorta) back on topic. My $12 gamble might pay off:

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I stand a pretty good chance of having Friday/Saturday/Sunday refunded to me @ $50/day.
 
GON said:
Mega billionaire and recent/new resident of Florida (from Illinois) Ken Griffin is fighting the casino lobby desire to expand legalized gambling in Florida. Ken believes legalized gambling causes substantial and permanent harm to a society, enough so that he is fighting the casino lobby.
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that or he has his hand in some already legitimate gambling business and doesn't want more competition.
The Miccousokee Tribe has casino's in FLA and the Cruise Ships do too... so I tend to wonder when someone is against it
if they don't have their hand in it and it is just an ulterior motive and not a legitimate motive.
 
Lost the gamble. It was calling for rain 3 days out of the weekend and it never really materialized. The temps were great, and we only had a few drizzles. Ohh well, was an interesting experiment and $12 isn't the end of the world.
 
ctechbob said:
Lost the gamble. It was calling for rain 3 days out of the weekend and it never really materialized. The temps were great, and we only had a few drizzles. Ohh well, was an interesting experiment and $12 isn't the end of the world.
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Sorry that happened. Every statistic implies over the long run "THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS- ALWAYS".
 
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