[rojas]

Well, if you are throwing $10 into an office pool, and that pool totals $50K+, you must be working in an office that employees a whole lot of folks.

Also, running a book on the Sweet 16 games out of a hotel is not only gambling, but it is illegal gambling.

Lastly, if I have to explain to you why it's an issue that these types of things are initiated and promoted by officials, then I'm wasting my time.

You are dead on with your remarks above. The Sweet 16 pool mentioned above was ran out of a Hazard bar for decades. I don't know how it is now but in the 80s it cost $50 to enter the pool. The participant picked the Sweet 16 teams before the district tournaments started. You could enter as many times as you liked. They would normally get between 1,000 and 1,500 entries. Several referees participated. At one time they were busted, not for illegal gambling, but for tax evasion. The winners were not paying income tax on the winnings.