A DIP IN THE `POOL' IS ILLEGAL

Perhaps it's the most commonly broken law that is never enforced.

Hint: Not only are you breaking it, but so are all your co-workers. It's the March Madness office scramble where hundreds of thousands of Americans hurriedly fill out their Final Four selections, each with a chance to win money and office bragging rights for a year. All for a mere dollar or two.

Known to most people as a "pool" for selecting the winner of the men's NCAA basketball tournament, the Missouri statutes define this activity as "gambling."

According to Section 572.010 of the statutes, gambling occurs when a person "stakes or risks something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance or a future contingent event not under his control or influence, upon an agreement or understanding that he will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome."

And that neat little chart with the names of 64 teams with black lines conveniently left so you can write in the projected winners can be defined by law as a "gambling record."

Of course, someone has got to organize all this. Perhaps known at work as the boss, in legal circles he is defined as the person who "advances gambling activity."

This person usually is quite easy to spot. He's the one who spends all that time at the photocopy machine duplicating these "gambling records." (Look around the office and you'll spot a trail of evidence). He's also the one that collects that "something of value" -- legalese for money -- along with providing those helpful tips like, "Don't bet on North Carolina, they had an off year."

Gambling is considered a misdemeanor, and anyone convicted could spend up to 15 days in jail and receive a $500 fine. Of course, law enforcement officials don't make a habit out of going after otherwise law-abiding citizens.

"Any pools on basketball games are illegal. But we've never had a complaint. If someone did make a complaint, it would be our duty to investigate it," said Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle.

Illinois and Kentucky have similar gambling laws. In Kentucky, "the law is loosely enforced. I've been practicing law for 20 years and I don't know that anybody's raided a friendly pool," said Larry Kelley, Ballard County's prosecuting attorney. "Kentucky's a big basketball state, I'm sure there's a number of pools on the games."

Tim Huyett, an Illinois prosecuting attorney based in Lincoln, says he has never investigated someone for participating in a pool.

"I would guess someone could be charged. But I can't imagine that anyone would complain about it. And we're not going to go looking for problems."

Huyett, who graduated from Southern Illinois University Law School in Carbondale, admits that he was a player in NCAA pools during his college years.

"You throw a dollar in, no big deal. I used to win those pools all the time. Now I'm in law enforcement and I can't do it."

Of course, getting people to fess up to doing it is another thing. "Folks do it but do not want to be publicly identified," says the Rev. Roy Jones, director of missions for the Cape Girardeau Baptist Association, who opposes riverboat gambling but acknowledges that dollar pools are "relatively harmless."

But even though it's against the law, why are so many people breaking it?

"We're a gambling society and people perceive it to be an acceptable part of society," contends Tom Herity of the Council on Compulsive Gambling, a New Jersey-based organization that studies gambling habits and is part of the National Council on Problem Gambling.

And according to Herity, March Madness isn't always harmless. "For some it does create a problem. This March Madness is an opportunity to break even for the season."