The Super Bowl just passed and March Madness is kicking off. That means it's prime time for office betting pools.
According to the 2006 Office Betting Pools Survey by career publisher Vault Inc., 67 percent of employees admit to taking part in office betting pools, up from 61 percent last year.
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The Super Bowl and the NFL regular season remain the most popular events for workplace pools, with 65 percent and 61 percent of employees who actively take part in office betting pools participating. Other popular pools? March Madness (57 percent); pregnancy pools (19 percent); the Oscars (13 percent); and reality shows (12 percent).
Some of the more unusual or creative pools named: a bet on when an underperforming employee will be fired; when the first day of snow will occur; and the morbid celebrity death pool, wherein participants pick the next likely celebrities to pass.
Productivity is generally not suffering because of betting pools, as most employees, 73.5 percent, spend only 5-10 minutes at the office making their picks and save further research to do at home. A majority of respondents, 80.5 percent, said people do not take the possible illegality of pools seriously at all, and most offices (86 percent) do not have any company policy against betting pools that survey respondents are aware of.
However, while the NCAA men's basketball tournament may seem like a harmless workplace diversion, employers should be aware that it could lead to serious problems like lost productivity and a rise in problem gambling, according to Marie Apke of Bensinger DuPont & Associates, Inc., a Chicago-based provider of employee assistance programs.
Apke cites a 2004 report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which calculated that employers lose more than $1 billion in productivity during the span of the tournament, commonly known as March Madness.
Apke says her firm has found a rise in phone calls about problem gambling after the start of the tournament.
"A recent review of our Problem Gambling Help Line indicated a 35 percent increase in calls related to sports betting around the time of the 2005 NCAA tournament," says Apke. "Gamblers get kinetic and frenetic during the tournament."
Apke also cautions that March Madness office pools could lead to problems down the road.
"While one bet a year doesn't mean a person has a problem, seemingly innocent office pools are often catalysts for some people to become involved in sports betting."