Yep, your lottery player is correct. The state provides the paper and pencils. All you provide is the money.

I guess my point about the insurance game is, whether anyone believes it or not, it is a game that once you master the initial hurdles of specialized knowledge and licensing you can be on your way to a steady flow of the green stuff we all seem to be chasing.

I would imagine hotsheets and APVs require some kind of specialized knowledge. I would also imagine the people who put this knowledge before us have done the same thing I did. They studied their craft. Now I don't know that for sure but I would bet that way if asked.

In part you said, "...setting up an APV can be done in a day, NO license required." That is true. I've set up a few and it didn't cost me a dime. I also didn't do anything with them after I set them up.

However you overlooked one critical point.

Almost every jurisdiction in this country wants some money from you if start selling something from your APV or hotsheet. You see the oversight police don't care how long it takes to perform the event, 2 in an hour for ex., they only care it is a business. Even a non-profit has to have a license BTW. (I have a non-profit and it is blessed by the state.)

Here's an accepted definition of a license - a permit from an authority to own or use something, do a particular thing, or carry on a trade (Internet garnered definition). If the truth be known, the creator of a hotsheet or APV is required to have a license if he or she intends to perform said event as a business. The guvmint understands the carry on a trade as well as the do a particular thing phraseology very well. Try telling a government judge you aren't doing one or both of those events.

That begs the question, what kind of license? A business license.

Yes, I know, a whole ton of people overlook that little bit of government imposed slavery. Yet, if the local pork sandwiches are looking for some extra revenue a quick skirt through the Internet will quickly identify the "scofflaws". That's not my term. That's what the persecutors, oops prosecutors, call people who don't pay their fair share.

Since I don't live everywhere, I would suggest anyone wishing to verify my statement check with their local code manufacturing unit, aka business license department. If it is HQed in their jurisdiction they want a slice of the pie.

Chatteling also carries the same burden. Yep, hard to believe and even harder to swallow. If you are performing that act for profit you are in business. Being in business requires a biz license. You said you shied away from licenses. That's OK by me but it may not be OK by the authorities in your jurisdiction.

(I've kept the IRS out of this conversation on purpose. But, and you know it, they want a piece of the pie too. How you handle that end of the biz is up to you, right?)

Again, don't believe me. Research it for yourselves. Read what your local, county, state codes or statutes say and forget the IRS.

I live in a revised statutes state. On the other hand CA is a code state. I don't care what your state calls them, they are laws enacted by the people YOU elected.

So I don't sound political, I'll close with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are yours only if you have a license to practice life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in this great home of the brave and land of the free. We like to pronounce ourselves as outside the system but check your wallet. Got a driver license? Social security card? Vehicle registration? Vehicle insurance?
Etc?

Actual close: I sincerely hope everyone who wishes to pursue a hotsheet or APV or insurance or anything else is so successful they'll forget the vulture on their shoulder called government because they are too busy spending their money on themselves.