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Comment by pclmulqdq | Hacker News Reader

Intent matters here, and accidents don't usually even get you ejected from a casino at all. Intentional cheating like that will get you arrested. The rules of the game are often controlled by a gaming commission or legislation that set the rules. Soccer doesn't have the same sort of thing.

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Ah, so if I run a casino and come up with some new kind of game I can’t just offer it? Rather I have to get approval and perhaps some regulation is formulated just for that game?

That would certainly answer my root question.

Sorry if this is naïve — I don’t really know how gambling laws work at all.

Games are very heavily regulated. You have to get approval, and there is a process for submitting the rules for a new game and getting it approved. Often it's the game makers who do this (and they sell the tables to the casinos for a license fee). It's easiest when it's a game that's very similar to an existing one.

Every casino jurisdiction is different, (and in the US, many native American casinos are regulated by a gaming authority that is part of the same tribal nation, so it is a bit circular) but almost all require a thorough review of any new game's rules and equipment, and usually also require third-party certification of the game's theoretical odds.

I think your main point is fine but your anti analogy is flawed.

FIFA and organisations like UEFA etc very much set out rules of the game. This is a lot like legislation: teams will be fined if they or the fans break the rules.

That is a good point, but also, those fines are civil, not criminal. Gambling is like the FIFA situation except the government controls the rules, making the penalties criminal.

Ironically, FIFA has famously been involved with criminal activity.

Very much so, if you're playing blackjack and you accidentally touch cards or chips or something inadvertent, you'll just get told "Hey, you cannot do that", in varying degrees of firmness.

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