The legal lines of bracket betting

Calling all college basketball fans! March Madness is up and running and in many workplaces there’s some gambling going on. But the thing is, that’s technically illegal in Maryland. Attorney Luke Rommel says many people lay their money down and fill out brackets not knowing the potential legal ramifications.

Rommel tells 47 ABC, “Just be careful you know if its one of those things where you hate to see someone’s career be impacted by what they might not know was a technical violation of the law at the time.”

Rommel also says if someone gets busted in a bracket ring they could face at least six months behind bars and fines up to $1,000. That’s the law on paper but in practice it’s a different story.

47 ABC spoke with Princess Anne Chief of Police Scott Keller who says, “I can never remember in forty some years of police work ever having a complaint about an office pool on March Madness.”

Keller says yes it’s illegal but it would be wasteful of police resources to start driving hard to crack down on friendly bets among co-workers.

Keller tells 47 ABC, “We’re well aware that there are many office pools that involve exchange of money and everything but without, with lack of complaints and everything its not something that we would generally get involved in.”

So you’re probably okay, unless someone blows the whistle on you.
Keller says the only way to be totally free and clear is to fill out a bracket, and leave money out of it.  So now that we know the rules, the big question is, who’s your pick?