It’s the law in Nevada that a casino has to have enough money to pay off every bet in that casino. That is, if every single chip and bet were to be called in at once, they have to have enough cash on hand to pay it off. For the slot machines, the casino has to have $1,000 per .01-.50 machine, plus $1,800 per $1 slot, and $5,000 each for slots of higher denomination. The idea here is that the casino needs to be able to pay the obligations it incurs by losing its bets.
Banks have laws that require them to have a certain amount of funds in reserve. All banks with more than $124.2 million on deposit must maintain a cash reserve of 10% of deposits. Banks with more than $16.3 million but less than $124.2 million must reserve 3% of all deposits.
So when I see a story telling me how a Florida insurance company, faced with having to pay out hurricane claims, is going to use insolvency as an excuse to get out of paying, it boils my blood. These companies are in turn owned by other companies, and the use that structure to move money from one place to the other to avoid having to pay out claims. They collect billions in premiums for decades and send that money off to their parent companies, then when they have to pay out a large number of claims, they claim to be cash poor.
Perhaps the state needs to make sure that there are more cash reserves required to do business as a Florida insurer. United Property and Casualty had about 135,000 policies in Florida. That means they are collecting at least $150 million a year in premiums in Florida alone. It claims to have losses of more than $35 million each year since 2017. The thing is, it is owned by a larger company, United Insurance Holdings Corporation. That company was making $10 million a year in profits until 2018.
