Airline Threatens To Sue Betting Site For Taking Bets On When It Would Go Out Of Business

from the what's-illegal-about-that? dept

Tue, Oct 7th 2008 7:01am — Mike Masnick

Apparently, a Scottish airline, Flyglobespan, has threatened to sue an online betting site because it was taking bets on what airline would be the next to go out of business, and had odds on Flyglobespan. The site did stop taking bets, but says it was due to a lack of interest, rather than the threat of a lawsuit. However, it's not clear what law it would be breaking to offer such a bet. You can understand that the company is concerned that potential passengers might think the airline is at risk, but it's not clear that's enough to stop any such bets.

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Filed Under: airlines, bets, failure, scotland
Companies: flyglobespan

15 Comments

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Your Gawd and Master, 7 Oct 2008 @ 7:34am

I got $5...
on the wankers at "Flybegone" airlines.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2008 @ 7:49am

people do things like that face to face all the time. I find this kind of funny
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2008 @ 7:52am

Wow I wish United would go down. I hate that airline.
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Dumbassname, 7 Oct 2008 @ 7:52am

I would have bet...
...that Flyglobespan was a fictional airline name - made up by a 3rd grader.
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JB, 7 Oct 2008 @ 8:13am

Golden Parachute
If the airline really was going out of business couldn't the insiders place big bets and win a lot of money using their inside knowledge?
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J.Locke, 7 Oct 2008 @ 8:14am

I bet they lose
Any takers?
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Norm, 7 Oct 2008 @ 8:23am

Dead Pool for airlines
Cripes, this is no different than people betting on when celebrities will kick off. I don't see the legal issue here, unless it's some ploy to drive down the company's stock prices.

If you want to add another airline to the dead pool, Sun Country is circling the drain, with its owner facing fraud charges. Too bad, it was a great little airline just a few years ago.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2008 @ 9:40am

Its no worse than wallstreet betting on oil and other stocks. Its called the futures market. Granted I think that the futures market needs to be taken down so that the prices can no longer be artificially inflated... but hey what do I know. I'm just a socially awkward nerd.

As far as airlines going down, I think they all need to hit the reboot button and start over. All this crap about charging for everything is something that prevents me from flying. no offense, but we already pay for fuel costs on our cars. The price for tickets should not reflect their hardships. We aren't charging airlines for our gas are we?
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Brian, 7 Oct 2008 @ 10:34am

Ha! Yeah. The first thing I thought was, "Damn. That's a really retarded name for an airline." It sort of reminds me of people who name themselves "Dragonsoulslayer" and the like all over the place in MMOs.

The second thought I had was that nobody would probably have found out if they didn't try to sue? How many people would have actually happened to go to that gaming site and noticed unless it was given extra attention and reported on? Just sayin'. Spare yourself the bad press.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2008 @ 11:13am

Since when did we allow airplanes in scotland?
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snowburn14, 7 Oct 2008 @ 11:15am

Re:
"no offense, but we already pay for fuel costs on our cars. The price for tickets should not reflect their hardships. We aren't charging airlines for our gas are we?"

Um, you're kidding, right? They're not charging you for the gas it took for the pilots, flight crew, etc., to drive to the airport. They're charging for the fuel that keeps the plane in the air. Personally, I think they ought to be able to figure the costs of such things into the price of the ticket - or rather, they ought to be REQUIRED to do so if they advertise the price anywhere, since you can't buy a ticket that doesn't come with those fees - but if that's the point you were going for, you missed the mark.
As for the ticket price not reflecting their hardships...that's how it works for pretty much everything sold in this world. If it costs more to produce/provide than before, they're going to raise the price. You can either accept that, or become a hermit.
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PaulT (profile), 7 Oct 2008 @ 12:50pm

Re:
"we already pay for fuel costs on our cars. The price for tickets should not reflect their hardships."

Erm, what? Are you saying that airlines shouldn't charge for the cost of the fuel they use to fly? Or are you saying that it shouldn't be shown on your ticket as a surcharge.

I'll guess the second, though your comment seems to be suggesting the former, which is an utterly retarded comment.
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Gatewood Green (profile), 7 Oct 2008 @ 1:25pm

There already is a 'legitimate' market for betting on a company's health
There already is a 'legitimate' market for betting on a company's health. It is call the credit default swap market. And it basically allows anyone with the cash to take out an 'insurance' on someone else's specific debt.

If Flyglobespan has a line of credit or a loan from anyone (bank, finance company, company commercial paper), not only can the holder of that debt take out insurance, so can anyone else. So long as some finance/insurance company is willing to take the bet, err, I mean insure the loan. In the US the CDS market is, by law, not regulated so it need not follow the normal insurance rules (minimum liquidity, capital reserve, etc...).

If Flyglobespan pays back the debt on time, you are out your 'premium' (aka: wager). However, should they default, you get the value of the insurance policy (likely the value of the original debt).

On a tangent, the CDS market along with sub primes (less of a real factor), have a lot to do with why the market is in the condition it is now. A wonderful explanation...

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=365
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Your Mom, 8 Oct 2008 @ 12:48pm

Re: I would have bet...
lol fake name?...someone doesnt know what google is, decent airline too, cheap and they havent had a crash yet
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Anon, 8 Oct 2008 @ 2:18pm

Clear and present danger?
Doesn't this kind of have a self-fulfilling prophecy kinda feel? Similar to the reasons they banned short-selling on certain banks during one of our recent meltdowns. I am not saying that it is necessarily illegal, but I bet a good lawyer could make a slander/libel case out of it... Can you slander a company?
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