Baseball may still claim to be America’s National Pastime, but TV ratings and profits tell a different tale. More often writers and pollsters show the sport ranking third behind football and basketball. But in March there is no contest. In March everybody’s favorite sport is basketball — NCAA tournament basketball. Ask anyone this time of year what’s his favorite sporting event to watch or bet on, and you will almost always get the same answers: the Final Four basketball tournament, March Madness. Professional football may be a fantasy favorite and have the Big Game “Superbowl Sunday”, but collegiate basketball has an entire month devoted to hoops hysteria.
Were you one of the more than 40 million Americans who filled out an estimated 70 million NCAA basketball brackets last month? How did you do? Did you win any money? Did you report those winnings as income? Probably not.
We’re told that more people fill out Final Four Tournament Brackets than cast a ballot for President Obama in the last election. (Does that mean Bracketology could claim to be the “National Pastime?” ) Obama fills out an NCAA bracket himself each season in the Oval Office, but he didn’t do too well this year. Kentucky let him down as it did many fans. But it doesn’t matter because he probably wouldn’t get to wager in a White House bracket pool anyway. As my readers know, sports betting is illegal almost everywhere.
Nobody publicly offered a billion dollars for a perfect bracket this year as they did in the past, but there were many bracket contests you could enter - some for free. But, you know, it’s more fun to play if you have a chance to win a little money. That’s why office pools are so popular. Most of the wagering on the NCAA tournament didn’t happen in sports books in Nevada, where it’s legal to bet on sports. Most people who paid to play filled out their brackets with friends or coworkers, and pooled their entry fees for the chance to win the pot. Pretty much like players and statistics lovers do for most fantasy sports games everywhere.
Gallup polls say 17% of Americans have wagered on sports in the past year. You may remember reading in my book, “Spin To Win,” and in an earlier entry in this blog that sports wagering is illegal in all states except Nevada, Delaware, Oregon, and Montana. That’s because only these four states allowed sports gambling in 1992 when the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was passed. PASPA effectively prohibits sports gambling everywhere — except in these four states. So what did those 17% of Americans do? They just ignored the law. They made their picks and paid into their office pools — and didn’t once think they might be doing something illegal.
The FBI estimates about $2.5 billion dollars was wagered on bracket contests last month. The American Gaming Association estimates a figure closer to $9 billion. Nobody knows for sure because nobody reports it - except for the large Vegas payouts and probably the bracket winners interviewed on TV. Did you include any fantasy sports winnings on line 21 of your IRS form 1040? I didn’t think so. I guess we are all criminals at heart, guilty of violating the law by wagering where it isn’t legal to do so and failing to include our fantasy winnings in income.
Don’t worry. IRS and FBI agents will not bother to descend on your workplace to arrest everyone who entered your office pool. But maybe it’s time for further dialogue and a little common sense on the topic of sports betting. Most people don’t really think of fantasy football leagues or March Madness brackets as gambling, let alone as being illegal. And it would not occur to most people that they should pay tax on their winnings from these games if they had any. It’s entertainment. It’s your money. You should be able to do what you want with it. And it’s a lot more fun than buying a state sanctioned lottery ticket.
Let’s use our common sense and modify our gaming laws so we don’t have to break the law next year when we fill out our brackets. Wishful thinking? Maybe. Or maybe it’s time to write our representatives a letter.
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