Bookmaking & P99: Humbly requesting a judgement from the Gods

[Litigator]

A client has hired <Law Offices of Norrath> to look into the legality of Bookmaking in the world of P99. It is well known that casino gambling is illegal; this is not a question about casinos--which are explicitly and unquestionably banned by the Gods--this is a question about making the book. I have done some searching on the forums and asked a few leading citizens of Norrath and nobody seems to have an answer to this question.

A character has been born, named "Bookmaker" and he wishes to pioneer this business model but does not want to risk a ban while exploring this new territory, so I ask the Gods to judge this occupation and advise the citizens how it can be done within the bounds of their unquestionable authority over this world.

Bookmaker proposes to take action on events that occur within P99. This will happen with in-game currency only, and bets will be capped depending on either the bankroll that Bookmaker possess at the time, or the limits that the Gods impose to keep themselves within the bounds of their comfort level.

To give more detail about what exactly Bookmaker wishes to do, I will provide some examples.

Example A:

The Department of Fun announces and advertises a drunken boxing match between level one characters. This entity is well known to enforce their rules rigidly and stream the events so that the public can see what is happening. Bookmaker sets
odds and takes action, with the line moving depending on how the events play out. Each bettor makes a bet of 100pp with payouts announced/negotiated before the fight takes place. These bets could be on individual bouts, or on the results of the entire tournament. 10% vigorish would be a given.

Example B:

A terrible earthquake occurs in the world and some diety beyond our knowledge sends all the monsters of the world back in one horrible instance. While much of the world cowers in terror, several hundred of our citizens respond to their summons and race to engage these creatures. Bookmaker takes action on who will win these races, and possibly takes action on who will slay the beasts. Killshots may also be bet on, and the house takes 10%.

Example C:

The Gods of this world hold a tournament to decide who is the strongest mortal, deserving of a title. Bookmaker takes action with odds based on prior sucess, weapons of war, and fighting spirit. Some mortals may have large odds, others who
have prior success will have smaller odds. Bookmaker believes that should such a thing happen, this would be a major gambling event. In addition, there have been several attempts at player run fighting events between more accomplished characters, and thus far these attempts have not generated much interest. Perhaps taking action would cause more to take notice. As always, the juice would be 10%

Now that the reader has a better idea of what is being proposed, lets get into the legal aspect of this and explore the practicalities of its implementation.

-As time goes on, these bets may become more sophisticated, but to begin, they would be fairly straightfoward. Would the Gods be more likely to accept this behavoir if the bets were capped at an amount that made them unrealistic ways to move money around illegally? This limiting factor seems important for acceptance. Whales would not be able to bet $1million platinum. Say 1kpp total between all bets, per person, per 24 hour period? As precident, I would cite the Gods v GreenGrocer meat casino ruling, where that particular form of gambling was allowed strictly because the amounts in question were so low that RMT was not feasible, and a roleplay aspect was present.

-Would the Gods be more likely to accept this behavior if the bets were posted, obviously before the outcome was decided, in a public forum such as this one? Or if logs were taken and kept to prove the bets? The former would be rock solid but could have negative consequences, since all bets would be public before the event takes place. The latter preserves anonymity and would help discourage foul play.

-Would the Gods prefer that only certain events have action taken on them? For instance, if they are uncomfortable betting on FTE races, could bookmaker take action on duels and fights only? Or the player held races?

I humbly submit these questions for judgement with hope that the Gods will keep an open mind and at least allow this client the opportunity to test a new market. No action will be taken until judgement is made.

[bookmaker]

Bump! I want to start taking action

[Braknar]

My initial guess is that no, this would fall into the same bucket as player casinos and be forbidden.

[bookmaker]

Originally Posted by Braknar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My initial guess is that no, this would fall into the same bucket as player casinos and be forbidden.

Has anyone tried this before? (I will not be trying it unless you guys allow it.) The idea is that we'd be betting on player determined events, not randomly generated numbers, and the line could move based on who is involved. These events are not common so nobody would be spamming the EC tunnel all day, in fact other than DOF low level boxing match type events this would not happen in EC at all. Taking legitimate action with odds might interest more people in these events. I am also open to the possibility of capping these bets so they'd be low enough to eliminate the concern of RMT.