MSE News: Volcanic ash - should you bet or get insurance?

alunharford

This article is downright irresponsible. You suggest a hedging strategy but fail to point out that anybody following it is extending credit to a bookmaker (who is under no real obligation to pay up - gambling debts cannot be enforced in court).

Actually, that creates a position with more risk - not less.

PinkPig

alunharford wrote: »

This article is downright irresponsible. You suggest a hedging strategy but fail to point out that anybody following it is extending credit to a bookmaker (who is under no real obligation to pay up - gambling debts cannot be enforced in court).

Actually, that creates a position with more risk - not less.

I think that's being a bit paranoid - I've not heard any reports of well-known bookmakers refusing to pay for no reason.

krazykidskate

alunharford wrote: »

This article is downright irresponsible. You suggest a hedging strategy but fail to point out that anybody following it is extending credit to a bookmaker (who is under no real obligation to pay up - gambling debts cannot be enforced in court).

Actually, that creates a position with more risk - not less.

like insurance companies are known to be good at paying up :rotfl:

peterbaker

I congratulate MSE for correctly taking the pulse of the nation on this question and throwing a spotlight on the real issue.

I think it is a damning example of how useless our so-called insurance companies have become. In the main they have become nothing but money-grabbers and serve very little laudible purpose anymore.

As an one-time insurance practioner, I understand far more about insurance than most yet I sit here largely uninsured for my upcoming booked summer holidays because
(a) I am waiting to hear something sensible from current insurance industry commentators about cover for ash disruption and
(b) I have decided I can afford to deal with the consequences of any other type of cancellation while I make up my mind.

I shall actually be travelling uninsured on short trips between now and my holiday for similar reasons.

That is NOT to be recommended but it is what I am doing. I see so little real benefit in Travel Insurance currently other than the catastrophe of a medical emergency somewhere difficult.


The fact is that once upon a time the insurance industry very straightforwardly was able to maintain separation between itself and the gambling industry. The distinction between gambling risks and insurable risks was easily defined. Not any more.

Now it seems that no part of the broader financial services industry wishes to operate without employing traders who think nothing of behaving in ways which gambling firms would not dream to do for fear of their individual firm's reputations. How have we got to the point where the reputation of a financial services firm means nothing because they are all as bad as one another?? ...

... a situation where William Hills' reputation means more to them than Aviva or AXA's reputations means to either of them?

Funny old world