Kicker - Rock, paper, scissors

NICK EICHER, HOST: Alright, now this one, we just couldn’t squeeze into the Legal Docket yesterday.

The dispute has to do with a debt arising out of a bet. The adversaries squared off over a best-of-three, winner-take-all match, half-a-million dollars on the line.

Michel Primeau versus Edmund Hooper. Primeau prevailed, leaving Hooper to have to mortgage his house.

Good thing for Hooper the Quebec Court of Appeal canceled the debt.

Under the law of the Canadian province, a bet has to meet two requirements to be valid: One, the dollar amount cannot be excessive. And two, the wager must relate to activities “requiring only skill or bodily exertion.” 

In other words, not games like rock, paper, scissors — which is what the two men were wagering over.

Oh, and if you think you could make the case that rock, paper, scissors is a game of skill, the court also found the $500,000 wager to be excessive.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(Photo/iStock)

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