With the ubiquity and convenience of online gambling, are employer “no gambling” rules a bit anachronistic? Maybe so. In conducting an informal survey of just under 50 employee handbooks reviewed by ASE in the last four years, a no gambling policy or rule was found in 25% of those handbooks. Typically, this rule was buried deep in a general rules or standards of conduct policy.
This rule usually states: “No gambling is allowed on the premises. This includes football pools, baseball pools, etc. as well as all other forms of gambling.”
With online gambling available for download onto every worker’s iPhone and the prevalence of Superbowl Squares and March Madness pools run every year within the employers’ workforce, just to name a few sources where gambling makes its way into a workplace, a no gambling rule in your handbook would create two potential problems.
One is enforcement. Is a no gambling rule really being enforced? If not, and we here at ASE get the question from our members once or twice a year that asks are Superbowl Squares or a March Madness pools legal, then this creates a second conundrum for the employer that still has this rule on the books. Not enforcing a rule now creates an integrity question with the employer and its policies and practices as well as its enforcement of its rules. However, we here at ASE rarely if ever get a question about disciplining or terminating an employee due to gambling anymore. Why might that be other than employers consistently looking the other way?
First, for those that may see a technical difference between legal online gaming and the other informal betting pools sometimes run by employees, yes there is a difference. But let’s just admit it, those betting pools (that may not truly pass a legality test) have been around a lot longer than the online casinos so prevalent today, and the prevalence of online gambling just confirms that gambling wherever should not be a problem.
Today, if an employer wants absolutely no gambling on their premises or at their workplace, then communication of that rule should be made clear and enforced consistently. This, however, may result in employees being disciplined or discharged to their and possibly the employer’s detriment for an infraction that does not cause the employer much loss, risk, or harm.
A 2011 Office Pool Survey by Spherion found that 46% of the survey respondents had in the past participated in office betting pools.
Failing to enforce a rule that is clearly stated and perhaps ignoring the workers who gamble on their phones during breaks or lunch does seem to beg the question of what other rules might be ignored.
What about lost productivity? The same survey found that office productivity was negatively impacted by participation in office betting pools. Other reports about office betting pools say employee morale is improved with some limited gaming activities. Higher employee morale positively impacts productivity.
What is an employer to do? From a policy and employee relations standpoint if you have a clear rule, then communicate and enforce it. If an employer does not want to be the “vice squad’ around employees and their gaming, it may make sense to have a general rule stating that while working employees should not be on their phones or otherwise conducting non-work activities. Then the employer can address the distraction of online and other gambling activities that are now so ubiquitous, one situation at a time.
By Michael Burns, courtesy of SBAM-approved partner, ASE.
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