When O.J. Simpson was picked up for questioning this weekend and then arrested on Sunday for breaking into a Las Vegas area casino, it raised some interesting questions.  The largest casinos in the world hold so much cash on hand, they are self-insured against gambling loss.  But all the major casinos must insure themselves against the possibility of theft.

Naturally, the policies written for casinos have vast coverage amounts.  Even in the event of a real life Ocean’s Eleven, casino owners wouldn’t be hit hard financially.

Simpson, upon questioning, claimed that he thought the items from the Palace Station Casino belonged to him.  Although we later discovered otherwise, there was speculation that the pieces might have belonged to him previously: after he was found liable for the wrongful death of his late ex-wife’s friend Ron Goldman, O.J. Simpson was forced to sell much of his own sports memorabilia to pay the multi-million dollar settlement.

Police did not arrest the former football star immediately, releasing him after questioning, indicating that the items were not extremely valuable.  Later in the weekend however, as it became clear that firearms were involved in the incident, Simpson was arrested.  We have now firmly ruled out the Heisman trophy that Simpson hoisted as a tailback at Southern California, which was among the objects he auctioned off.

This time, the goods having been recovered, no insurance claim will be filed (unless to cover potential damages incurred during the break-in).  And it seems likely that even if the burglary had gone off without a hitch, the stolen goods were not valuable enough to put a real dent in the casino’s bank account.

Still, the man who graced the covers of tabloids for so long, and wrote a book entitled “If I did it” is now arrested and a suspect in an ongoing break-in investigation.  If he did it, and didn’t get caught, insurance claims would likely be the next chapter of this story.

Casino insurance has been in the news concurrently with O.J. before.  In 1994, the same year that Simpson was on trial for the murder of his ex-wife and her friend, Lloyd’s of London, perhaps the best known insurer in the world, canceled all it policies covering casinos in Canada.

Several gamblers had filed lawsuits recently before, claiming that the casinos had taken advantage of their gambling addiction.  Plaintiffs alleged that comped drinks and hotel rooms were given out to players who had spent inordinate or excessive amounts of time and money at the tables.  The lawsuits indicated that dealers must discern that if a player has been gambling for a certain amount of time, or with certain regularity, he or she must have a gambling problem or addiction.

The threat of these lawsuits was enough for Lloyd’s, who immediately withdrew their coverage from multiple casinos across Canada.

More recently, casinos have been known to offer insurance themselves.  Several online gambling sites (which are mostly defunct in this country after they were illegalized by Congress in October 2006) offer insurance to a gambler who loses money.  49er Casino and 3 Diamonds Casino both offer insurance through Bettors Insurance (www.bettorsinsurance.com).  Most policies cover ten percent of losses incurred while gambling.

Major casinos are slower to jump on the bandwagon, since gamblers are lining up eagerly enough to hand over their money.  The casinos in Las Vegas don’t need to offer insurance gimmicks, but they sure do need policies of their own—especially when O.J. is in town.