Keep Those Office Super Bowl Pools Small and Legal

Kathie Caminiti was quoted on New Jersey 101.5 on January 21, 2015. The article “Keep Those Office Super Bowl Pools Small and Legal” discussed whether or not Super Bowl pools can be legally problematic in the workplace.

Kathie was quoted on the legal stipulations surrounded around betting pools in the workplace.

Kathie said the betting pools are legally benign in New Jersey as long as it just runs around the workplace.

“If it’s social activity, the law is not going to get in the way and create any legalities as long as there are no kickbacks,” Kathie said.

Kathie stated the poll may also cross a legal line by getting too big, “it doesn’t seem to be ‘social’ any more, or where somebody is taking something ‘off the top’ for their trouble for organizing the event.”

According to Kathie, legal problems can also arise if the pool involves interactive gambling with other offices in other states or on the internet, which can run afoul of federal law.  She noted “it gets tricky if an office has locations in other states or they are using the internet or faxes to essentially take bets or submit boxes, because then you are using interstate commerce, and it actually could be a violation of federal law.”

The only other issue might be workplace friction that involves certain staff members. Kathie said there could be a problem that might involve, “a discrimination complaint if gambling is against someone’s religion and they complained about it or felt coerced to engage in that activity. Those would be the type of lawsuits that would come to mind immediately.”

Employers, Kathie said, have two different issues: one is a loss of productivity, for which they would want to make sure they have policies in place. And two, as long as an employer is only operating in New Jersey, they would not have to worry about the gambling laws in our state.

To read the full article, please visit New Jersey 101.5.