back to article Is your office World Cup sweepstake legal?

Many of the sweepstakes being run at workplaces ahead of next week's football World Cup are likely to be illegal, according to an expert in gambling law. Sweeps with informal tickets and even those where some proceeds go to charity can be illegal. As next Friday's World Cup draws nearer, clubs, societies and workplaces are …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Pete 2 Silver badge

    The theory and the practice

    While all this may be very well in a lawyers exam, in the day-to-day workplace it's irrelevant. No matter what the law states, you will still get individuals or groups of friends writing countries' names on small pieces of paper and charging "willing participants" a quid a pop to engage in a bit of a laugh.

    Who cares if it breaks the letter of the law? These days there are so many laws that we probably unwittingly break have a dozen every day.

    What does matter is that the law enfarcement people have better things to do than try to crush small-time and often spontaneous activities like this. We know that these little sweepstakes happen every year with the Grand National and a few other events. Telling people they're illegal doesn't do anything to endear the participants to the legal system.

  2. Tommy Pock

    I tried, I really tried.

    I even finished the paragraph concerning multiple-site locations. Then I remembered that life's too short, and now I'm going down the pub

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Pub

      I want to go down the pub :(

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Careful

      Don't be tempted by the bonus ball.

  3. Eponymous Cowherd
    FAIL

    Of Mountains and Molehills

    It would be a brave decision to prosecute the organiser of a non-profit sweepstake, irrespective of the actualities of the Law.

    It doesn't take much imagination to envisage the media shitstorm such an action would create.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Unhappy

      Indeed!

      More than anything this is obviously designed to put the frighteners up the HR dept who will speak to management and next thing there will a company-wide email, "NO HAVING FUN! AGAINST THE COMPANY REGS AND AGAINST THE LAW!'

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    "The first thing we must do is kill all the lawyers,"

    Note to the CPS - these are not my words, but a shocking quote from William Shakespeare which I in no way condone. I don't know where he lives but I'm sure he'll be on a database somewhere.

    1. Arclight

      Twit

      Remember the twitter bomber? You'll have the old bill knocking on your door tonight.

      Anyone want to run a sweepstake on what time they'll knock his door down?

  5. mego
    Headmaster

    I have just one word

    >>This exemption also only applies if no profits are made from the lottery and all funds are paid out as prizes. This means that any attempt to make a charity donation with some of the proceeds would make the lottery illegal<<

    Hilarious.

    The funny thing is, we make informal bets all the time.

    Don't go out with an umbrella with (or sometimes without) clouds in the sky? Betting that the rain won't ruin your suit or shoes!

    Changing jobs? Betting that the new one won't sack you. You'll win a salary on one hand, the dole on the other.

    Getting married? Betting that the girl won't divorce and ruin you. Often millions considering Sir McCarthy.

    Thing is there are so many ways in which information gambling is already in our culture, it's just the numbnuts in parliament that think it's possible to regulate it.

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Coat

      Re: "Often millions considering Sir McCarthy."

      He should count himself lucky. She might have got more if she'd had a leg to stand on.

      The one with the Big Book of Tasteless Jokes in the pocket thanks.

    2. Havin_it
      Headmaster

      RE "Sir McCarthy"

      Would that be John, or Mick? Didn't realise either of 'em had been kniggited. I'm guessing it's not the 1950s US Commie-fearin' senator either.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

        Sigh... yes, his spelling was wrong. Though it seems the previous reply knew precisely who was being referenced.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    ...what?

    So, to paraphrase:

    "Ok, so you want fun with your collegues? Tough shit, it's not going to happen. No, we don't care that this has gone on for so many decades before we even existed, and that really it is just a bit of a laugh, a bit of company bonding, so to speak.

    Fun? You want FUN? Fuck you, you're supposed to be working for crying out loud!"

    Thanks chaps, thanks a lot.

    AC because the company I work for may or may not have already done this, and I may or may not have already taken part.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Laugh a minute

    Laugh a minute in OUT-LAWs offices then.

  8. RJ
    FAIL

    Sooo.....

    ...how many people actually give a damn?

    Precisely.

  9. Gerard Krupa
    Thumb Down

    Illegal or not...

    ...you'd have to be a complete Jobsworth to report your company's sweepstake to the council unless you thought there was some kind of deception or fraud involved. This just sounds like lawyers trying to drum up some consulting work with FUD.

  10. Mighty Gaz

    in other news.........

    people all over the country declared Susan Biddle to be an idiot, and went ahead with what they were gonna do, ignoring the noise coming out of her mouth!

    1. Jon Whiteoak
      Unhappy

      Who?

      So who are Susan Biddle and Sir McCarthy anyway?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Mighty Gaz?

      Mighty Gaz - Mighty Fuckwit more like. Susan Biddle did not write this legislation so don't shoot the messenger.

  11. Andy C

    Cant stand football

    But the idea of having a few weeks long party could be great :)

    And of course, it would be for charity... so moral bonus points as well...

  12. neverSteady
    Thumb Down

    We want our cut!

    Typical scare-mongering. "Hey! You there! Stop that illegal poker night you're running amongst your friends. We are supposed to get our cut of the winnings."

  13. Harry

    Same as raffles

    Most raffles are illegal, though I've never heard of one actually being prosecuted.

    Some examples:

    a) Raffle takes place over two days with the prize being drawn on the second day. Wrong -- the draw has to take place on the day the tickets were sold, so that has to be split into two raffles.

    b) One of the prizes is a donated bottle of wine. Usually wrong -- prizes cannot be alcoholic unless the premises are licensed to sell alcohol.

    c) Tickets are 25p each or £1 for a strip of five. Wrong -- all tickets must be sold for the SAME price and all tickets must have an equal chance of winning.

    d) raffling a car or a house and offering tickets for sale on ebay or elsewhere -- definitely wrong. To qualify for exemption tickets can only be sold at a one-day event, to people physically attending the event and the draw must take place the same day.

    Yet I actually reported a particularly severe instance of d) to Edinburgh Trading Standards -- who took no action whatsoever as far as I can see.

    1. MonkeyBot

      Not quite...

      "b) One of the prizes is a donated bottle of wine. Usually wrong -- prizes cannot be alcoholic unless the premises are licensed to sell alcohol."

      They only need a licence if all of the prizes are alcohol. If there's a bottle of wine amongst a load of other prizes in a raffle, people buying tickets aren't garuanteed to get a bottle of wine so it doesn't count as selling alcohol.

      Although, if you held a fund raising dinner and the ticket included a glass of wine with the meal, you'd need a licence.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Pint

        Re: Not quite...

        "They only need a licence if all of the prizes are alcohol."

        *All* of the prizes? Spot the obvious workaround!

        1. MonkeyBot

          Re: Re: NotQuite...

          Unfortunately, I seem to remember that it's one of the areas that isn't well defined so most councils would say that fell under the unwritten "you're taking the piss" rule. If a school raffle for charity gives away a few bottles, no-one cares. If they think you might have been cleverer than them, they'll get annoyed and fine you.

          Mind you, as long as you don't do it too often, you could get a temporary licence and that only costs £20-£30.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    it's all in the scale

    the law-makers are still far away from common sense as usual... it would be much easier to put a generic cap on amounts and frequency to calm the whole issue down and show that your colleagues are obviously not doing it as a business would, but simply to bring a little excitement in the office...

    if there are 3 or 4 sweepstakes in a year in the office and they all have the "standard £1 ticket" I don't see any problem at all with it, and neither should the legislators, who is too obtuse to see the difference with a real addicting and greedy business like the betting shops one

    1. david wilson

      @AC 09:37

      Sometimes it can be better to have flexibility in enforcement than explicit exemptions in legislation.

      If there are rigid limits of what is allowed, that can sometimes effectively be interpreted as saying 'anything more than this is definitely wrong', rather than 'anything less than this is harmless'.

      Without fixed limits, it is still pretty hard to prosecute someone for doing what loads of other people do quite openly unless that person is obviously taking the piss, but it can be difficult to define precisely what 'taking the piss' actually is when it comes to drafting legislation.

      If you had a fixed [legal] cap on the number of sweepstakes in an office per year, would that make someone (in management?) responsible for keeping a legal record of all the ones that have happened?

      What is defined as 'an office'?

      What happens if multiple people have their own small sweepstakes on an event in a large 'office'?

      etc.

  15. Shadowmanx2009
    WTF?

    Does this mean..

    that lottery syndicates are also "illegal"? And if so, exactly how are they going to enforce it??

    Another rubbish law!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: Does this mean..

      well first we need some way of proving who everyone is, some kind of nationwide identity system, with a huge back end database which will cost the taxpayers billions....

  16. Dabooka
    Happy

    Stuggling to care...

    I really am!

  17. Alex, Leeds
    Happy

    Does that mean...

    that I can get my money back then? I got Algeria!

    1. moonface

      Great minds and all that.

      I'll swap you for North Korea.

  18. moonface

    Sold a dud.

    Great News!!! I got North Korea, so potentially I can still get my money back.

    Anyone got Susan's number?

  19. Eek
    FAIL

    @harry

    You forget all the win a house lotteries of the past few years. They all got large amounts of publicity, are totally against the spirit of the law let alone the law itself and yet non were prosecuted.

    This just seems a article written for public relations. Not that I mind that but I better starting point would be the law is a mess because you can't do .... while everyone knows people do.

  20. Anonymous John
    WTF?

    Ridiculous!

    Everywhere i've ever worked had a Grand National sweep. And a Christmas raffle. Does anyone buy cloakroom tickets for their eponymous purpose?

    This would make almost everybody a criminal.

  21. Lord Lien
    Paris Hilton

    All I know.......

    ... is the £3 I put in, got me Greece & the winner takes all.

    This "law" is so that some one does not try to start there own bookies. There is no way you could even think about enforcing this for every small sweep stake that went on in England. On the Grand National, they would just about have to arrest everyone in the country. lol Would be very amusing if they did try to.

    Paris, because even she knows that Greece in a £3 sweep stake was a waste of a pint....

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Lawyers

    Q. What do you call 10,000 lawyers laying drowned at the bottom of the sea?

    A. A good start.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Lying not laying

      Lying not laying - unless you think they produce eggs.

      Jesus the standard or grammar these days...

      1. Cameron Colley

        RE: Lying not laying

        I think he meant laying as in laying down. Yes, lawyers lie so they would have been lying also.

        Though, personally, I always thought the above should be lying and lieing.

      2. LPF
        FAIL

        @ac

        "Lying not laying - unless you think they produce eggs.

        Jesus the standard or grammar these days.."

        "of" not "or" the irony!! :P

  23. Neil Shepherd
    Joke

    I See...

    I think the corect response to this article has to be the highly useful (and adaptable): Get a fucking life

  24. colin79666
    WTF?

    Frankly dear...

    ...I don't give a damn!

    1. frank ly
      Happy

      re. Frankly Dear

      Neither do I Colin sweetie.

  25. Adrian Esdaile
    Alert

    Of course it's ILLEGAL!

    If the Government can't TAX it, it MUST be ILLEGAL!

    Lucky they haven't thought of a way to tax k1dd13 pr0n; though I'm sure they're working on it...

  26. Cameron Colley

    @Those who think this article is in some way irrelevant.

    While it is true that, in most cases, you'll be fine carrying on with whatever it is you're doing regarding sweepstakes and the like you should not laugh this off.

    If you own a business, think carefully about this next time you fire someone around the time of the world cup, for example. I'm sure a disgruntled ex-employee who knows about this will try to use it to their advantage.

    If you happen to be a law firm, or in another other highly regulated industry I am sure that your regulatory body will not take kindly to you breaking the law -- should a client, employee or competitor decide to report you to the police.

    There are probably many other situations where this will get you into some kind of trouble -- even if you're never actually charged with the offence in the end.

    So, yes, this may be irrelevant to you at this moment -- but, like many other minor laws we all break from time to time, there are situations where this could bite you in the arse.

    1. Ned Fowden

      a disgruntled anyone ...

      could potentially take advantage of this knowledge.

      hell I picked Algeria in our sweep, perhaps i'm disgruntled enough to report this activity so that the rules can be clarified and I get a re-pick or my money (£2.50) back :D

      but seriously, I joke above, but there will be people out there who are just about gruntled enough to do it just for the kick it gives them.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Fuck 'em and their law.

      It is irrelivent, no one gives a shit.

      Even if they did and someone was running a world cup sweepstake for their work collegues that didn't adhere to the letter of some legislation and they reported it to the authorities, the chances of anything happening are so remote it's not even worth thinking about.

      The kind of person that actually thinks this is an important issue simply needs something worthwile in their lives to worry about.

      1. Cameron Colley

        RE: Fuck 'em and their law.

        It could be interesting to report someone to the police for this, then see them do nothing.

        Are the police really able to ignore a reported crime?

        1. Jimbo 6
          Unhappy

          Police...ignore...crime ?

          You must have missed yesterday's story about Robert Napper. His *own mum* rang the police and told them he'd confessed to rape, and they did absolutely nothing.

          Given that level of, ahem, dedication, there's just two chances that they'll go speeding to investigate a workplace lottery: fat, and slim.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Unhappy

            Nowt to do with us, sir

            It's the Law that every crime reported to be police may be refused to be investigated if takes more then ten man/minutes of poilce time or if the henious crime is driving at 31 in a thirty zone or even riding without seatbelts in the back of the car.

            More complicated stuff can be ignored whilst plod earns a bonus by harvesting cash from drivers. cf North Wales Police.

            - AC because, well, for obvious reasons - I don't wish to be done for speeding on my pushbike.

      2. Cameron Colley

        Just thought of another group who could take advantage.

        HR departments and/or bosses. You have an employee who you don't want/like and they happen to run a sweepstake -- now you can just sack them for gross misconduct.

    3. Stratman
      Thumb Up

      title

      Does this really mean a law firm could get dragged through the mire by lawyers behind a totally stupid law, enacted by part-time lawyers?

      Bring it on

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fuck the law

    Who the hell knows what laws we break every day. The last load of lawyers/lobbyists/placemen created more than 4000 new ones. Hell even the judges can't keep up.

    Time we barred anyone with a law/politics degree from being a MP. Really, it is for all they do is generate more and more spurious crap - you can't even call them laws, for some passed in the SAME SESSION of Parliament contradict each other.

    Its not a question of whether laws are needed to these morons, its more a case of why shouldn't we have more... and more.....

    “If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble,… “the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience.”

    Dickens - Oliver Twist (1837-39). Still good advice.

  28. Number6

    Two Finger Salute

    Your average workplace sweepstake between a group of friends is going to totally ignore what the law says about the legality. Those who are concerned can decline to take part, the rest will all chip in their pound and curse when they end up with the rank outsider.

  29. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    Indeed, so who is going to prosecute?

    Anyone want a bet on that?

  30. Wokstation

    Like most people...

    As if most people are fully law-abiding anyway.

    Everyone bends and breaks the law in one way or another, and as long as no-one suffers from it, who really gives a shit?

  31. A J Stiles
    Grenade

    Gambling Act 2005

    Being serious for a moment, the Gambling Act 2005 is the one that f**ked up "no purchase necessary" promotions in order to sustain a broken business model artificially.

    It used to be law that promotions involving a competition, prize draw or similar could not require a purchase as a condition of entry -- so you could walk into McDonalds and pick up a scratch card without buying anything, and still win. This way, the promise of prizes could not be used to induce people to buy something they would not ordinarily have bought, and so the promoter was not encouraging people to gamble.

    Some corporate lobbyists, displaying a meanness of spirit equivalent to a child who pulls the wings off flies, convinced the Labour government of the time that this potentially left companies liable for fortunes in prizes without actually selling any product. It is now legal to require a purchase, as long as the goods are sold at the normal selling price -- thus the promise of prizes now is merely not being used to induce someone to *spend more money* than they ordinarily would have. Entry is still technically free -- but only if you have bought the product they are promoting with a promise of prizes.

    It stinks of 419 to me.

  32. blackworx

    Q: Is your office World Cup sweepstake legal?

    A: Who cares? It's football.

    1. A J Stiles
      Coat

      If you think football is boring

      If you think football is boring, you obviously haven't had to listen to people talking about tennis.

      1. heyrick Silver badge

        If you think that's bad...

        ...try cricket. It's like baseball played at 33rpm, with none of the interesting stuff, and yet another thing at which the English are woeful.

        1. Martin
          Pint

          Baseball? - rounders played by men?

          And has the cheek to call its main tournament a "World Series" when no-one except the USA plays it?

          At least cricket really IS a world sport.

          And if you think cricket is boring, you've obviously never watched it on a village green on a sunny afternoon from the garden of the village pub. Bliss!

          1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
            Pint

            with a pint

            of real ale!!

            I'll drink to that

        2. kiwimuuso
          WTF?

          Baseball exciting????

          Don't tell ME that it's more exciting than cricket!!

          When I worked in Dallas many years ago, a group of expats from various countries decided that we should indulge in some American culture and go to see a baseball game so a bunch of us work colleagues, a mixture of Americans, Aussies, Poms etc, went along to the Texas Rangers stadium to see a 'home' game, took our seat in the bleachers (cheap seats) and glued our eyes to the diamond.

          Several innings went by with nothing scored, which became rather tedious so we took to talking amongst ourselved and drank more weak beer until a cheer went up whereupon we turned to the large screens to see the replay. Half the time on watching the replay, we had no idea why there had been a cheer in the first place.

          Certainly test cricket can be a little slow for those who don't understand the strategies involved, but even that has changed over the years. Gone (mostly) are the dull defense ridden games of the past.

          Oh BTW if you think cricket drags on, that particular baseball lasted until well after midnight, as there was such a dearth of runs scored that I think it was 2-2 and they went into overtime as the Americans insist on a result to their games - no matter how long it takes!!!

          What exactly was this exciting stuff mentioned? Buying the next round of beers?

          My God, the grass growing on the pitch had more action ad excitement!!!

  33. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    ACS:Law

    Me thinks this is a similar "scam" to ACS:Law and file sharing.

    You, as a lawyer and "expert in the field", write an article about how illegal something might be. 99.9% of people ignore you as a (borderline) scam artist, but a tiny proportion pay the money to keep themselves in the clear.

    Good work if you can get it.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Respect

    The problem with most of these stupid laws is that because no-one cares about breaking them it starts to creep into thinking that other laws are also stupid and can be broken - this just breeds disrespect for the whole thing. (Although lawyers do nothing to command respect anyway)

    Seems pretty simple to create a law to stop gambling for profit: "THOU SHALT NOT MAKE PROFIT FROM A GAME OF CHANCE, AND IT SHALL BE FAIR". Then just define "game of chance" and "fair".

    Of course, if you have a system designed by lawyers they're going to design it to best suit themselves...

    1. Rolf Howarth

      Re: Respect

      "The problem with most of these stupid laws is that because no-one cares about breaking them it starts to creep into thinking that other laws are also stupid and can be broken - this just breeds disrespect for the whole thing."

      You say that like it's a bad thing??

      There ARE an awful lot of stupid laws, brought in as as kneejerk reaction to some particular horrendous event, never mind the effect it will have on perfectly decent law-abiding citizens. Legislate in haste, repent at leisure.

      People SHOULD therefore be a lot more sceptical about the mass of laws and regulations out there, and the people enforcing them should be given a lot more discretion to decide whether a particular case is worth pursuing or not, EVEN IF THAT MEANS MISTAKES WILL SOMETIMES BE MADE.

      Right now people the authorities are so overwhelmed with things like performance targets and mandatory sentencing guidelines and what have you that they have no choice but to investigate and prosecute things like this to the maximum, no matter how trivial or well meaning the transgression is. If you don't believe that, try taking a locking penknife blade with you on a camping expedition because you don't want it to slip and injure someone and see how far you get when the police stop you and question about carrying an offensive weapon.

      1. M Gale
        Badgers

        Re: Re: Respect

        "If you don't believe that, try taking a locking penknife blade with you on a camping expedition because you don't want it to slip and injure someone and see how far you get when the police stop you and question about carrying an offensive weapon."

        Don't forget the latest IRL Crazy Taxi/GTA rampage. I'm wondering how the British government is going to ban firearms that are already banned? And didn't that ban turn out well? Look at all the shooting rampages it's stopped!

        Erm.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          WTF?

          Rampage... singular.

          One every 20 or so years is'nt too bad going, when compared with events on the other side of the pond.

          1. M Gale

            20 years ago.. 15 years ago..

            ..I could wander down the street to the local wood with an air rifle and 500 pellets. Come back with several dented pennies, a bunch of chalk animal targets reduced to dust and no pellets.

            These days, I'd be slapped in a prison cell faster than you can say "Hungerford".

            As I recall, there weren't many psychopaths going apeshit with firearms (oh yeah.. one part of more recent idiotic laws has been to classify even low-powered air weaponry as a firearm even though no fire is involved) back then either. Perhaps that's WHY there's only maybe one big shooting every 20 years or so, and not because of some kneejerk legislation that has done approximately nothing to stop it happening again?

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              re: 20 years ago.. 15 years ago..

              To say its done nothing is fairly idiotic. Its impossible to see things which havent happened because of this legislation.

              We could assume though that with less legislation firearms would be more prevalent and perhaps the recent "wave" of knife crime in inner cities would have been gun crime. I know which one sits better with me.

              Boo hoo you cant shoot at targets in the woods, thats no great loss.

              No amount of legislation can protect against an individual flipping. Making guns less accessible to limit the damage is all we can do.

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    AHHH crap...

    ..I got England, can I sue and get my money back?

    1. Swoop

      I got New Zealand...

      ...how does the Haka go???

      1. kiwimuuso
        Joke

        You mean New Zealand actually qualified????

        I can give you the words to the haka - if you REALLY want.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I worked for the local council

    a while back, in collections. One of the people in my team did invoiceing and collections for Gambling licensing and had regular meetings with the licensing officer about non complience and non payment. We had regular world cup/Euro whatever/Grand national sweepstakes. She didn't give a f*** and nither did the licensing officer.

    They realy don't care as long as the genral public (I.E. don't try and sell tickets to people you don't know) are not involved and its just a few quid.

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    For all the moaners...

    To all you people on here complaining about the crap teams you've drawn in your companies sweeps, just put a sock in it. You knew the risks when you paid.

    Plus I drew Ghana, so I win. Or whatever.

  38. Tony Humphreys
    Stop

    Wow

    Something got in before TV licensings ritual warning of the end is nigh.

  39. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
    WTF?

    What's the quote ... ?

    "The Law's an ass", springs to mind.

    I suspect the great majority will treat this with the contempt it deserves, have a "bring it on" attitude to the ludicrous notion they could be prosecuted for something that no one, except the law itself, sees as being wrong in any way.

    It seems unlikely that anyone would be prosecuted for fear of showing the law to be foolish in its extent, exposing the reality and nature of zero-tolerance and 'police state'. It would be a clear sign that our freedoms have truly been taken from us.

    Bring it on.

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Crap Teams

    Our sweep has prices for winner, runner up, and one for the first team eliminated. So even if you picked a crap team you still stood a chance of coming out a winner.

    I picked Italy, so I'm probably getting nought, except hopefully a very enjoyable tournament and plenty of quality football.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Crap teams...

      I wouldn't give up hope quite yet, you're still in the running for "the most red cards due to diving" prize. :o)

  41. Steve Evans

    Great...

    A yet a crappy phone in TV quiz (on premium rate lines) can become a game of skill, and not a game of chance (aka lottery) by asking questions such as:

    The company that make the iPad are?

    1) Apple

    2) Orange

    3) Banana

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Jobs Horns

      hmm

      B) Orange?

      Alas tis wishful thinking, they would probably do a better job of it...

  42. This post has been deleted by its author

  43. scottyleics

    Big Government

    This is just the type of thing David Cameron promised he would stop.. government interfering in peoples private lives.

    He needs to get to work and start scraping stupid laws like this if is really exists.

    1. BongoJoe
      Thumb Up

      Which is why

      perhaps PM wrote this article in the first place - to point out the absurdity of the law as it stands in order to persuade HMG to do something about it.

  44. dave 81
    Happy

    Law is an ass

    Its petty laws like this that cause the total lack of respect for the law in general.

    Anyways, I got germany.

  45. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Brilliant!

    I shall enjoy it all the more, knowing that it's probably illegal.

    Anything that puts people before politicians gets my vote!!!

  46. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Sweeps may be Illegal, are often banned, and are commonplace

    Our company "use of IT facilities" policy prohibits the use of the company IT facilities for gambling in any form. Our company IT facilities are also used by management to run a footie tipping competition and annual Melbourne cup sweepstakes.

    I think the policy "means what we want it to mean, but only when we choose to want it to mean something"

  47. P. Lee
    Big Brother

    Nothing to hide, nothing to fear

    I wonder how much McKinnon and the twitterNonBomber or Icelanders were relying on "no harm, no foul," and "nobody would prosecute for that!", or "nobody would use anti-terrorist legislation for that purpose!"

    Just wait until the gambling offences are rolled into a "serious and organised crime" bill.

    I'm not so much worried about one particular law, it's the cavalier attitude of government to law-making that scares me.

    It used to be that the average person would have to do something morally wrong to do something illegal. Is that too much to ask?

This topic is closed for new posts.