INSURANCE
Covid-19 and business
interruption insurance: Why casinos should act now
Catrin Povey, who leads Capital Law’s insurance practice, discusses how businesses in the casino and gambling industry can make a claim if they have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
B
usiness interruption insurance is intended to provide cover for financial losses where business operations have been interrupted due to unexpected
events, as a result of damage to insured property. The coronavirus pandemic is definitely an unexpected event, and it has interrupted the operations of most businesses in the gambling industry, including casinos and betting shops, which
were forced to close due to sanitation and contamination concerns. Yet, many have experienced difficulties in claiming and accessing business interruption insurance. That’s because most standard policies are designed to cover damage caused by fire, flooding, earthquakes etc. and are unlikely to be triggered in the current circumstances. Even where policy extensions provide a wider scope of coverage, insurers are contesting that these were not intended to cover losses connected with pandemics. While this push back from the
insurance industry is inevitable, businesses should not automatically accept their insurer’s denial, or assume that they are not covered. Each policy is unique, and whether a claim is possible
depends on the exact terms of the policy – bearing in mind that any ambiguity in wording should be interpreted in favour of the insured. Here are a few arguments that betting shops and casinos can put forward to make a claim.
You’ve had a case on or near your premises
If a confirmed case of coronavirus has been found on (or within a certain perimeter of, depending on the policy wording) your premises after the virus was officially recognised by the authorities as a notifiable disease, you may be able to claim insurance if your policy includes a notifiable disease extension. This extension was designed to cover situations where premises have been
34 MAY/JUNE 2020
snowing12/Adobe Stock
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58
