For many sports fans, March means March Madness and hour upon glorious hour of college basketball. There’s a good chance that some of your employees are planning office pools, just waiting for Selection Sunday, the day the official brackets are released. While they view office pools and other office gambling as a harmless distraction from their typical duties, employers usually pay the price with decreased productivity and potential legal exposure.
This year, Selection Sunday is March 15. So, if you don’t already have an office gambling policy in place or you want to update your current policy, you have a short time to do so before employees start passing out brackets and placing their bets.
Prevalence of office gambling
According to the 2013 Office Betting Survey by Vault.com, 70% of respondents participate in an office betting pool, while 81% of respondents knew of a coworker who did and 79% of respondents believed it was appropriate to engage in such behavior in the workplace and during work hours.
The survey shows that sports dominate office pools, with 69% of respondents admitting to filling out an NCAA basketball tournament bracket and 60% of respondents betting on the Super Bowl. The most common nonsporting betting event was a coworker’s pregnancy (17%), followed by awards shows (8%) and shows like American Idol (4%).
Is office gambling legal?
Many states have laws that prohibit betting, including office pools. The most infamous incident of law enforcement cracking down on office gambling occurred in January 2002 when a middle manager at AT&T in New Jersey was arrested for allegedly taking a 10% cut from an office football pool, which amounted to about $3,000.
Despite that extreme example, it’s highly unlikely that your local law enforcement will be setting up surveillance or using an undercover officer to determine if you or your coworkers are participating in an office pool. Given the statistics showing how many people have engaged in an office pool, it would be a logistical nightmare for police to enforce laws against all office pools.
It’s a good bet productivity will suffer
Aside from the legality of office betting, the lost productivity caused by office pools and other gambling is a significant concern for businesses. Occasional banter and discussions among employees about their picks in an office pool is expected and may actually help build relationships and camaraderie.
On the other hand, spending hours at work watching NCAA basketball games streaming on your computer will lead to work assignments being ignored or delayed. Since nearly every major sporting event is live online, the loss of productivity is a very real concern for many businesses. Accordingly, it’s wise to be on the lookout for drastic drops in worker productivity.
The best bet is a good policy
If office betting is illegal in your state (or you don’t want employees participating in office pools), you should clearly communicate through a formal written company policy that betting is not acceptable at work or on company property. The policy should make it clear that office betting isn’t sponsored, organized, or approved by the company. It should
also unambiguously define gambling to avoid any confusion, emphasize that gambling is illegal, and communicate that gambling can cause problems for employee productivity and morale. The specific consequence for each act of gambling should be set forth in detail, with explanations of the behavior that is subject to discipline and termination.
After the policy is enacted, it should be distributed to all employees and included in the employee handbook. It’s important that the policy be enforced fairly and that all employees who commit the same violation receive the same treatment. Even though it’s unlikely that law enforcement will crack down on your office pool, it’s never wise for a company to knowingly permit criminal activity of any kind at work or on work property.
Bottom line
Office gambling leaves employers open to potential liability. You should carefully tailor and enforce your policies to make it clear that gambling isn’t condoned or endorsed by the company. Even if you turn a blind eye to office pools and gambling,
you should nonetheless be on the lookout for lost productivity and employees using company resources to promote gambling (e.g., via e-mail, bulletin boards, or posters).
Justin Lessner is an attorney with Axley Brynelson LLP, in Madison, Wisconsin. He may be contacted at jlessner@axley.com.