Gambling on company property

Ruskanen · September 2003

We have a policy against "illegal" gambling on company property. What constitues illegal gambling and what is considered legal? What is your company policy on gambling? Does your policy address football and basketball pools? Do you make exceptions for certain activites?

rad · September 2003

Our company has a strict policy against gambling that is grounds for dismissal and that includes football/sports pools, or even fantasy leagues , 50-50's, or cash prizes for contests/incentive programs (although we can give gift cards).
We had a situation where a football pool turned into one employee being dismissed and several others facing some pretty harsh discipline. It was like our security dept turned into the FBI on a RICO operation!
As far as whats legel or not legal, sorry, I can't help there, I thought anything not run by the state was illegal but I'm probably wrong about that.

marc · September 2003

Legal in Nevada means licensed by the gaming commission. Everything else is illegal. Most states will have some sort of licensing process that varies quite a bit by state. Indian gaming also comes into play, but still pretty much controlled by each state.

Pork · September 2003

It is specifically "office pools" and state law against gambling except where established by the State, that we choose not to have an exceptionally strong policy. "Any employee found guilty of acting as a "bookmaker" will be subject to immediate discharge. Any employee setting up sports pools for the sole purpose of personal gain is considered to be in the process of "bookmaking". We let the chips then fall where they may!

Most of us don't set up sports pools for personal gain, like I used to do when I was in high school, At a dime a square I would pay out $8.50 to the winner and pocket $1.50. On Sunday I would tithe 15 cents and spend the rest on me.

That was big stakes gambling in my young Baptist days. As a Methodist now I don't make books, but I will spend $20.00 for entertainment pulling on the one arm bandit for fun!!!

PORK

Rob S · September 2003

As long as there is no house cut (100% of the money goes out to the winners), then we don't worry about our office pools (anybody know what the line is on the Green Bay game this weekend?).

Rob

Don D · September 2003

Ruskanen: I've missed you! You must have been terribly busy over the past 5 or 6 months since you don't post often. I have always understood that illegal gambling is anything that is not state-sanctioned also, when you apply it literally. Therefore, betting a coke or a nickle or a dollar to a donut is literally illegal. I found out the hard way that even raffles are illegal if not set up for the benefit of a bona fide, state chartered charity. I found that out in a raffle of a bicycle raising money for a lady that needed a marrow transplant. It boils down to how tough (or unreasonable?) the chiefs in your particular village want to be. Where I just came from they have really elaborate Nascar pools and football pools and one guy spends more time generating the graphics for those things than he does on his engineering job. But, the key player was the Chairman/CEO. In my state hundreds of shiney slot machines are legal if housed inside a state licensed casino. But a nickel poker machine in a truckstop nextdoor is illegal and will land the owner in jail. Go with what the owners want and you won't have to worry personally, as long as they sanction it.

marc · September 2003

Football pools can get quickly out of hand. One fairly large company I worked for had a fairly elaborate pool that would pay the top three winners and the worst pick on a weekly basis, several hundred for the winner. A portion of the pool carried over for a grand prize at the end that always turned into a couple of grand for the top dog.

We had just installed phone usage software and immediately noticed that one particular ee was running up hundreds of dollars a month in 900 number charges. Investigation determined he was calling people that give out picks for all of the games and then playing several different versions to try and win the pools.

He did not get fired, but he did have to pay all of the 900 number phone charges. Ironically, he only placed 2nd in one week of the pools and never did win anything.

Gambling on company property

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