Workplace betting pools are kicking off
By John Burke • Bankrate.com

As the New England Patriots and the St. Louis Rams gear up for Super Bowl XXXVI, workplace cube farms across the nation are abuzz with their own big game preparations -- the office betting pool.

Football pools are the most common form of workplace wagering, and the Super Bowl represents the largest of all betting pools, according to workplace gambling surveys conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management.

More than half (58 percent) of the human resources professionals who took part in a 1999 SHRM survey said their company's employees have participated in Super Bowl pools. Closely trailing the Super Bowl are regular-season football pools (55 percent). One in 10 said employees participate in fantasy football leagues at work.

What about NCAA March Madness? Thirty percent of the survey respondents said employees at their operations bet in office pools surrounding the college basketball tournament. Other popular gambling activities in the workplace include baby birthday-guessing, golf tournament pools and fantasy sports pools.

A follow-up look at office gambling took the 1999 numbers a step further. HR directors were asked whether office betting pools should be a concern? Apparently not. In SHRM's January 2002 online poll on the subject, 57 percent of HR types say they don't worry about it.

Of the nearly 10,000 HR professionals who took part in the latest survey, 30 percent said their organizations do not allow betting pools in the office, and 14 percent said their companies allow office wagering.

But there is some reassurance for the small-business owner who might be concerned that valuable work time is lost to useless sports chatter and betting. SHRM's earlier survey found that gambling has little effect on worker productivity, and it may even boost morale.

Do your employees participate in betting pools?

-- Posted: Feb. 1, 2002