Indeed much of the commercial expansion of the game in its traditional strongholds as well as new frontiers was underwritten by cigarettes; Rothmans in England, Benson and Hedges there and in Australia and Imperial Tobacco's 'Wills' brand in India.
Witness Help to Buy, under which subsidised mortgages are underwritten by the taxpayer.
Mr Delors's new vision of an avant-garde, which would obviously include France, would be underwritten by a fresh "treaty within a treaty".
Though they have continued this month to transfer most of the customs dues that provide the bulk of the PA's funding, Israeli ministers insist that henceforth they will not deal with any Palestinian government, whatever its composition, if it is underwritten by Hamas, which it regards as an irredeemable terrorist group.
It is important, for example, to bar banks from foisting their own insurance upon loan applicants, and to keep them from stuffing shares they have underwritten into the portfolios of unknowing customers.
Even Mr Musabha, the camel-owner, employs a young apprentice from Bangladesh.Many nationals find work instead on swollen government payrolls, underwritten by petrodollars.
As usual, the trade was underwritten by a Chinese bank, which endorsed the bills of lading on the back and released the goods to the buyer.
In America the amount of corporate bonds investment banks have underwritten and sold has risen by a factor of five.
Although they will have the right to participate in Bankia's €12 billion capital increase in October, which will be underwritten by BFA, it is pretty unlikely that anyone will take up those rights (Bankia's shares have fallen by more than 70% since it listed).
In fact, ever since the end of the cold war, far from American industry getting a hidden subsidy from the Pentagon, civilian technology has underwritten much of America's defence effort.
One answer to that could be some form of European fiscal backstop through the issue of "Eurobonds" underwritten by the currency area's taxpayers.
