Whether futures contracts count as wagers determined whether they were illegal.

Evidence

Futures trading had always been contentious farmers, for example, often blamed speculators on futures exchanges for the low price of their produce and a crucial plank of its opponents’ efforts to ban it was the argument that futures contracts were wagers. If its critics could succeed in making this identification, they would push futures trading outside the law, since gambling was illegal in most of the United States. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 638

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete historic example of how legal category designation (‘wager’ vs ‘legitimate contract’) determines the legality and therefore existence of a market — a core theme in how financial instruments get constituted by the surrounding legal-institutional frame. — connects to: Cash-settled index futures were barred by legal logic until decades into the century — Donald MacKenzie & Yuval Millo, Constructing a Market, Performing Theory, 58; The delivery test blocked cash-settled index futures as illegal in the US. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 641; A federal futures agency could override state gambling bans on cash settlement. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 762 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Physical delivery once legally distinguished futures trading from gambling. #exemplifies (1.00) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 761
• A federal futures agency could override state gambling bans on cash settlement. #expands (0.85) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 762
• Economists’ endorsement legitimated derivatives markets that regulators viewed as gambling #qualifies (0.85) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1135