what is an aleatory contract 
an aleatory contract is an agreement whereby the parties involved do not have to perform a particular action until a specific triggering event occurs events are those that cannot be controlled by either party such as natural disasters and death aleatory contracts are commonly used in insurance policies for example the insurer does not have to pay the insured until an event such as a fire that results in property loss aleatory contracts also called aleatory insurance are helpful because they typically help the purchaser reduce financial risk 1understanding an aleatory contractaleatory contracts are historically related to gambling and appeared in roman law as contracts related to chance events in insurance an aleatory contract refers to an insurance arrangement in which the payouts to the insured are unbalanced until the insurance policy results in a payout the insured pays premiums without receiving anything in return besides coverage when the payouts do occur they can far outweigh the sum of premiums paid to the insurer if the event does not occur the promise outlined in the contract will not be performed 