Posted on 03/29/2016 5:07:50 AM PDT by MichCapCon
The NCAA men’s basketball tournament, March Madness, kicks off today. But if you’re one of the millions that takes part in filling out your brackets and putting some money into a betting pool with your friends, you’re breaking Michigan law.
State law allows an exception for small bets during poker games, but almost everything else is against the law. The state department notes, “Participating in betting pools based on sports, or anything else, is illegal.”
Michigan sponsors a state lottery (with the funds benefiting government), but individuals gambling on themselves is a no-no. So enjoy the tournament – but bet at your own risk.
Oh well, then, I’m sure everybody will stop.
Land of the Free...
Home of the Brave...
“Michigan sponsors a state lottery (with the funds benefiting government), but individuals gambling on themselves is a no-no.”
*****
As a retired mobster once told me, crime is only legal if the government runs the racket.
Is it as it is in OH? All betting is illegal unless it’s at a casino or with lottery tickets and the state gets its cut.
Oh well...
Since neither Michigan team is in it, I suppose the government workers, lacking their own betting pools this season, will have time to go and raid random offices to stop such vice form sullying the reputation of our state
Oh well, Hillary had classified info on an unsecure computer and she is not in trouble. This betting is small potatoes.
Making book on who gets caught.
I’ve never understood ‘news’ stories like these which are the worst sort of dog-bites-man stuff.
I guess if you’re on deadline and have to submit something topical you go for the low-hanging fruit.
“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
- Robert A. Heinlein
“As a retired mobster once told me, crime is only legal if the government runs the racket.”
Know some old timers here in NYC that played the “numbers” before the state lottery began. The payout percentage was WAY higher than anything government run.
Lottery averages slightly over 50%. If any casino did that, they’d be run out of town
I don't think you have it right. AFAIK, in Ohio, It is not illegal to bet with your friends. It only becomes illegal if somebody takes a cut off the top (as is done in lotteries, pari-mutuel betting, "raking" the pot in a poker game, etc.).
I believe that betting is also not legal, in the sense that you can't sue someone for not paying when they lose.
We only bet “stars” at my workplace. Man those s”stars” are getting expensive. Stupid MTSU!
As a retired mobster once told me, crime is only legal if the government runs the racket.
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As Bob Dylan sang - while a member of the Traveling Wilburys - in Jersey everything’s legal, as long as you don’t get caught.
Probably the same in Michigan.
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