PRINTOff-the-cuff gambling
A little illegal betting won't get you busted
Rebecca Bierig
March 20, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
William Coblentz, an MU senior, has been unknowingly breaking the law at least once a year for the past 12 years. He filled out his first NCAA bracket during March Madness as a 10-year-old and joined his family’s pool.
Filling out NCAA brackets and joining pools has become a recognized tradition over the past few decades. Some participants randomly fill out brackets without rhyme or reason. Others take it much more seriously by researching statistics and watching the games day after day. Their lives might not be on the line, but chances are cash is, and according to the law, March Madness bracket pools are a form of gambling.
Missouri’s gambling law, last updated in March 2007, states that people engage in gambling when they risk something of value on an event outside their control with the possibility of receiving something of value in the end.
Most people don’t realize that betting on these seemingly harmless brackets is essentially a form of illegal gambling. “Even at-home poker games are illegal,” says Kristy Wanner, gambling prevention coordinator at MU. Bracket pools are no different. “Until the law gets changed, it’s illegal. Part of the problem is people don’t know that.”
The government, however, doesn’t seem too concerned with nailing sports fanatics for participating in March Madness pools — they have better ways to spend their time.
“They have to make decisions every day based on resources they have available,” says Scott Holste, a spokesman for Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon. “Office pools generally don’t fall under the higher priority category.” Rather, law enforcement focuses its attention on gambling operations set up specifically for the purpose of the operator making a profit.
John Griesheimer, Missouri senator and chair of the joint committee on gaming and wagering, says the government is not overly concerned with sports pools. “It’s ridiculous when we try to ban everything from everybody,” he says. “And honestly, I see no harm in stuff like that.”
The government’s hypocrisy frustrates Wanner; she feels it provides mixed messages for anyone betting. “They are saying it’s illegal, but they don’t really follow through with that,” she says. “Either it should be legal or consequences must be enforced.”
Coblentz broke the law as a resident on MU’s campus when he participated in a pool, but for him it wasn’t really about the money. “It is about picking the most winners and knowing that you did a better job than everyone else,” Coblentz says.
Gambling during March Madness is not just a pastime for college students but is in the workplace, also. The Forge & Vine restaurant, along with Fieldhouse, Willie’s and Lee Street Deli, hosted a March Madness pool last year. Each employee who wanted to get in on the action bought a bracket for $5; the winnings totaled slightly more than $100.
Forge & Vine manager Audrey Holaday, who won the bracket last year, does not see a problem with office pools, as long as they don’t get out of control.
“Our employees came up with the idea to have an office pool, and it did not even cross my mind that it was a form of gambling,” she says. “I think it’s fine, though, as long as it doesn’t keep them from doing their work.”
However, gambling is seen as an unethical activity to some businesses. “Gaming and gambling has become more and more a part of our culture and economy,” says Dr. James Fisher, St. Louis University professor and director of the Emerson Center for Business Ethics. “Some of the moral sanctions against that are starting to sort of crumble. In some ways, that may be a commentary on moral standards.”
Fisher, however, does not consider office pools a serious ethical infraction but believes it is ultimately a company-by-company call. If an organization has a clear policy and feels gambling is a distraction, employees have an obligation to respect that, he says.
Coblentz and fellow March Madness fanatics can gamble with confidence this year while filling out their brackets; no one should end up in jail for joining a bracket pool. For anyone who has never broken the law before, consider finding yourself a bracket and putting some money down on a team — it might be the only time you can get away with illegal gambling.
