A man who bet big in a best-of-three game of rock, paper, scissors has been saved from his debts by the Quebec Court of Appeal.
Edmund Mark Hooper owed $517,000 (£296,000) after losing to Michel Primeau in January 2011 and was forced to remortgage his home to meet the costs, but the court has now written off his debts.
According to Quebec law, any contract for a bet requires the wager to be based on an activity “requiring only skill or bodily exertion on the part of the parties” and not simply chance.
Furthermore, the bet must not be for an excessive amount.
So, the court of appeal had to decide whether rock paper scissors was a game of luck or skill.
The original 2017 judgement by Justice Chantal Chatelain ruled that rock paper scissors could ”in certain precise circumstances, call upon the skill of the parties, particularly in the speed of execution, the sense of observation or the putting in place of a strategic sequence”.
But Justice Chatelain ruled that the size of the bet was too excessive, finding the contract was therefore invalid.
The Court of Appeal has upheld this decision.