Sports

Your Super Bowl Boxes Are Almost Certainly Illegal

Yeah... that ain't legal.

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This weekend we’ll have another Super Bowl that the Patriots will inevitably win off the back of at least one pass interference call on a wildly uncatchable ball that will instantly move the chains 55 yards to set up a last-second field goal invalidating the preceding 59:45 of defensive football and somehow that’ll be slightly less of an affront to common decency than having The Dude drink Stella with Carrie Bradshaw in the ambitious crossover that literally no one ever asked for.

In any event, with sports betting increasingly legal around the country, people stand to make — but mostly lose — a ton of money this Sunday. But even with a new wave of legality, rest assured that the bet most of you have already made this week is entirely illegal.

We’re talking about “Boxes,” those little grids hanging on the wall of offices and bars around the country promising a payout based on the final score (and maybe some lesser payout for the score at the end of each quarter). That’s because unlike “sports betting” a box is a lottery that happens to use the game as its own personal bouncy ball machine and private lotteries are still not legal pretty much any way you slice it.

Because the “box” you buy doesn’t have any numbers attached to it until the matrix is complete. That renders the bet random as opposed to making an educated guess on the outcome of the game or the statistical likelihood of some event during the proceedings, like Peyton Manning having a snap go over his head and through the end zone on the first play.

As Marc Edelman explains in Forbes, states frown on private lotteries and any contest that crosses state lines — a common occurrence in the New York or DC metropolitan areas where most of our Biglaw readers find themselves — can run afoul of the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 if they enter the pool with at least some contact with a state where the contest is illegal.

But the most expansive risk may be to the folks holding the money:

Meanwhile, under the Department of Justice’s recent and more aggressive interpretation, some might argue that any Super Bowl squares pool that uses a payment processor such as PayPal, Venmo or LeagueSafe could find itself in legal peril.

In addition, with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, payment processors such as PayPal, Venmo or LeagueSafe may find themselves at risk under federal gambling laws simply by accepting funds from Super Bowl squares pools.

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So congratulations to all the unwitting criminals out there this week! Don’t worry, the government’s probably not going to be issuing a warrant for your arrest. I mean, it’s not like you’re trying to raise a kid while poor or anything truly criminal.

Super Bowl Squares Pools Are Legally Risky Even After The Fall Of PASPA [Forbes]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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