March Sadness: No Pool For You

The NCAA basketball tournament is just around the corner, and in private-sector workplaces around the country, that means one thing: It's time to start cranking out those brackets for the office pool. Last year, I was told by several readers that the same wasn't really true in federal offices (although some former federal employees have acknowledged the existence of pools).

Now comes the Interagency Ethics Council to throw cold water on the whole idea, reporting that the Small Business Administration has officially informed its employees that pools are verboten. "First," the agency noted, "regulations promulgated by the General Services Administration (GSA) bar anyone from participating in games for money or personal property, the operating of gambling devices or the conduct of a lottery or pool, while in or on property controlled by GSA." And second, "Office of Personnel Management (OPM) government-wide standards of conduct regulations, ... prohibit federal employees from conducting or participating 'in any gambling activity including the operation of a gambling device, in conducting a lottery or pool, a game for money or property, or selling or purchasing a numbers slip or ticket' while on government-owned or leased property or while on government duty."

That sure makes it seems like college basketball aficianados are out of luck. Unless maybe we elect a bracket-loving presidential candidate.