Quote from: Micon on April 02, 2013, 06:27:50 PM

totally done with betsofbitco.in. This is very damaging for their business, and it pisses me off to see one of the more respected, older btc gambling sites making decisions (or indecision) that are so clearly influenced by the obvious losing side of the statement.

I think betsofbitco.in is now debating setting a precedent: what constitutes acontract, the intent of the bet or what is written in the terms? Does the title count as terms? On time based bets, what determines the time? In the lack of clarity of definitions, does betsofbitco.in have to stand in and interpret? For example, betsofbitco.in now has to define what "shipping," "device," "by April 1," and "post on a forum" means in order to set a precedence. You can say "but it is obvious," and it may be "obvious" that they lost the "spirit" of the bet - but now betsofbitco.in has to decide whether they want to be in the business of deciphering what the "spirit" of contracts is.

Is the title part of the contract? This may be "obvious" to many, but it is never defined - BoB has to declare that it is, and this can be a time to do it. They just as easily can say, "only the terms in the text count" - either way they are about to declare one or the other.

"shipping" If i hand it to you and you hand it back, is that "shipping"? It legally counts as delivery but is that in the spirit of the bet (and who decides what the spirit of the bet means?)

"device" does a working, but unpackaged and not brought into a fully realizable form, device count?

"by April 1" what time zone? Do we care what the contract end time is? The bet says it ends April 1 at end of day Eastern time. What is end of day? 5 pm? Midnight? Does it even matter because it should have been March 31 at midnight UTC?

"shall post detailed and credible photos of the device on the forum" What if the time stamp on the photo is before April 1 but the post is after? What if they post credible photos of the device and it is not in their possession?

Should BoB even be answering these questions?

As "obvious" as this appears, there may be just enough ambiguity for BoB to not want to set precedence. Now you know why lawyers write the way the do, they can only use precise language which has been proven to stand up in court. This is an example of case law that betsofbitco.in needs to establish.