Should we void drunken prop bets?
Is being wasted an excuse to call off a prop bet, like the recent bracelet bet between Vanessa Selbst and Jason Mercier?
It seems every year there is a bracelet prop bet that seemingly transcends the events themselves at the World Series of Poker, and this year Vanessa Selbst is the protagonist. In two separate bets, she has bet against Dzmitry Urbanovich and Jason Mercier winning three bracelets. In both instances she was drunk when she made them, and should she lose either, it could cost her millions.
With the Mercier bet, it was revealed that she has tried to cancel, and then buy out for $100,000, both of which were refused by Mercier. Commenting on his refusal, she had hoped he would be a little more sympathetic to the fact that she made the bet while drunk (and no doubt also mindful of the impact of the slim chance of both men bagging three straps each).
Before I go any further, it’s important to point out that Selbst had not publicly shamed Mercier for this, she was hoping to keep it private, and was merely responding to other people’s reaction to his public comments. I also understand she has managed to sell off most of the bet now. However, it does bring up an interesting point, should we void a bet that was made when drunk?
We are still responsible for our actions
The short answer is no. Alcohol does lower your inhibition, but we all still have control over whether we get drunk in the first place (For the purposes of this discussion let’s assume nobody making the bet is an alcoholic). Nobody would ever defend somebody who got behind the wheel of a car drunk, and even in our most ‘festive’ moods thankfully most of us know not to even contemplate putting the keys in the ignition.
If you are the sort of person who makes reckless decisions with money when you are drunk, then the onus of responsibility is still on you, especially when you get drunk around other gamblers.
Not everyone agrees, in fact there are places in the world where business contracts have been voided because somebody was intoxicated at the time. However, the one place that never works is in a casino, an industry which is built on inebriation.
One of the problems with having a no-questions-asked approach to voiding drunken bets is how easily it could be exploited. Booze flows freely in most casinos and it would be very easy for anyone to backtrack when a bet goes wrong and claim they were drunk when they made it.
Reputation is everything
In gambling circles, all you have is your word and reputation is everything, and honouring a drunken bet is a must. The ramifications for refusing to pay would likely have cost someone like Selbst more over the long term, one way or another.
While poker reputation is everything in these cases, it works both ways. Mercier and Selbst were (I would assume) good friends and perhaps more importantly, colleagues at Team PokerStars. They might be playing poker together in the same circles for the next 30 years. Is it really worth damaging that relationship for the chance at a big score? He did, after all, have the chance at a six-figure score risk free.
Honour compels us to stick to the bets we made when we were drunk. I would hope friendship would give us a chance at buying out early, for a fair price, when the bet stops being fun.
Should drunken bets be voided? Let us know your views in the comments.
