Practical Matters: Brackets? We don’t see no stinkin’ brackets

By David M. Heilmann
Clausen Miller

Brackets are coming out in a few days.

That’s what an Iowa attorney friend said to me the other day.

I, of course, had no idea what he was talking about.

“March Madness, Dave,” he said. “The Sweet 16, Final Four, the brackets, the pools. We have a terrific one at the office.”

Ohhhh. You mean those sheets that people copy from the newspaper or get online that they madly fill out and keep running to Thursdays through Sundays for a few weeks? The ones where you throw in a few bucks with some friends and hopefully are smart enough not to pick a bunch of 13 seeds advancing to the final game?

“Yes, those sheets.”

We don’t do that in Illinois. Especially lawyers.

In an unofficial survey of 100 law firms, I discovered that not one practicing lawyer in Cook County has ever seen anything like this.

Besides, gambling is illegal in Illinois. And we don’t break the rules around here, buster. Everyone stays right at the speed limit, makes complete stops at signs, and stays away from those wretched, workplace-ruining pools. We are officers of the court, by God.

In Illinois, a person “commits gambling” when he plays a game of chance or skill for money or other thing of value. A person does not commit gambling when making wagers at the racetracks, boats, bingo halls, or going broke purchasing lottery tickets every day.

Apparently there is some distinction, presumably from Rome, and so those are exceptions.

I didn’t get a chance to read the legislative comments on why pools are illegal, but I can assume there was a fear of thousands lying in the gutters, begging for food and money, wailing, “Why did I pick all Big Ten teams?”

In some states pools are legal, others aren’t. But has a trend started toward official sanction of such pools?

In Connecticut there was a smidgen of interest in pools right around the Super Bowl for some reason. But gambling is illegal in Connecticut. The state has no exception for office pools, but one section exempts from punishment wagers incidental to a bona fide social relationship. As opposed to all those artificial social relationships we all have.

But just to make sure there was no confusion, the week before the Super Bowl, Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal said, “Office pools are generally legal unless they’re done for a profit by the person organizing it.”

How about neighboring New York? The New York Constitution states that pool-selling, book-making, or any other kind of gambling shall not be allowed.

But that same week before the Super Bowl, Dutchess County DA William Grady said the state penal laws draw a distinction between those pools where the winners split the whole purse from those where someone is taking a cut of the action.

“Informal office pools, while technically a form of gambling, are not criminal so long as no one is making a profit from the venture,” Grady said.

On Jan. 30, 2008, California Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries introduced legislation that would decriminalize participation in Super Bowl pools, March Madness brackets, and other office pools.

“At a time when we can’t keep car thieves, multiple DUI offenders, and armed robbers in prison, it is silly to continue to threaten people with jail time for buying a $5 square at a Super Bowl party,” Jeffries said.

Back in the Midwest a few years ago, Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals Director Steve Young made clear that office pools are legal, subject to a few stipulations, such as the pools being on a social basis and no more than $50 is lost in a 24-hour period. This begs the obvious question of what happens in the West Coast bracket triple-OT games extending past midnight CST.

Last March, Michigan State Rep. Kim Meltzer introduced a bill to allow the office pools saying: “What makes March Madness unique is that all kinds of people and sports fans of all levels fill out their brackets and enjoy the tournament. It’s a crime we consider that a crime, and I want to change it.”

The Michigan legislature then passed a bill making legal any office pool where bets remained under $10 and the total pot was less than $1,000.

An August 2007 survey done by the Society for Human Resource Management revealed that nearly one-third of human resource professionals knew betting pools for the NCAA basketball tournament exist at their company.

The other two-thirds didn’t answer because they were filling out their brackets.

Few if any of you reading this have ever seen one of these pools in an Illinois law firm. So you’re probably totally unaware of the subject, as was I. That’s why it was necessary to provide this critical insight so that now, before it’s too late, we can warn our clients
of the laws of the State of Illinois and the dangers of this practice.

Unless the AG says it’s okay. Then fade the Big Ten.