Brackets illegal, but speak easy

When a police officer walks by, there’s no need to hide your NCAA tournament bracket.

“In… When a police officer walks by, there’s no need to hide your NCAA tournament bracket.

“In fact, probably most police departments and the DA’s office have their own pools,” Pitt law professor Barry McCarthy said.

This doesn’t make them hypocrites with respect to the gambling law because in Pennsylvania it’s legal to place bets. However, it is illegal to operate any sort of gambling without a permit.

Some of the activities protected by the gambling law are the Pennsylvania Lottery, licensed charities or nonprofits, horse racing and, most recently, casinos for slot machines.

McCarthy explained that any person who organizes or collects bets on the NCAA tournaments, football games or political races is, in fact, committing a crime in Pennsylvania.

Individuals guilty of this misdemeanor of the first degree are subject to fines and imprisonment for up to five years.

“Traditionally, vice crimes only punish the purveyor or the service,” McCarthy said. “During prohibition, drinking was not a crime. It was making, transporting and selling and the like of alcohol that was the crime. Until recently, prostitution crimes punished only the prostitute, not the john. Gambling is like this and probably like prostitution is only selectively enforced.”

McCarthy pointed out that almost no one is prosecuted for these crimes. The enforcement of the law on small-time betting pools is left to local police and district attorneys.

Pitt police officer Ron Bennett has never heard of a case where students were charged for collecting bets on the NCAA tournament brackets.

“Are people out looking for these crimes? I doubt it very much,” Bennett said. “We do understand that it’s illegal but proving it is a whole new ball game.”

Bennett explained that to charge someone for the crime, he would have to see the transfer of money.

For individuals who do not hold gambling licenses, Bennett said pool organizations can hold temporary permits from Allegheny country. This is how church fundraisers and bingo halls operate legally.

Mary Barbish, fund-raising chair for Sigma Phi Rho engineering sorority, helped to coordinate a March Madness pool to make some quick money for her organization. The sorority sold brackets for $5, but Barbish doesn’t really consider this gambling.

“It’s a 50-50 type deal. Half will go to the sorority and half will go towards a restaurant gift card for the winner. It can be considered gambling, but I think it’s more like a raffle,” Barbish said.

The Sigma Alpha Pi leadership development organization also organized a March Madness pool to raise funds. President David Gau said that the group sold about 30 brackets and will give a gift certificate as a prize.

“We made a computer program with Matlab because we’re engineers. With only 30-some brackets we could have done them by hand, but we thought this would be cooler,” Gau said with a laugh.

Sigma Alpha Pi was careful to screen the bracket seekers according to NCAA standards. They made sure that the people buying the brackets were not affiliated with Pitt athletics.

Neither Gau nor Barbish applied for permits and did not know if they should have.

“If anyone didn’t want it to happen, they could have stopped us. We put fliers up,” Gau said.

Gau and Barbish intend to use the money raised to help send their groups to regional and national conventions and fund social service events. The groups both raised about $100 each.

According to Title 18, in order for organizing a betting pool to be a federal crime the business must raise an excess of $2,000. In addition, five or more people must conduct, supervise, or own the business. The business must also be active for two or more days.

McCarthy said that the federal government is more concerned with the large betting outfits that are located overseas than pools among students or co-workers.

Common alternatives to betting on the NCAA tournament are the free CBS and Yahoo online pools.

Bennett admitted to having a bracket on his own desk, but he hasn’t put money on it.