• Business Week , Tuesday, March 13, 2012 10:30 AM

While the office pool has moved online—with dozens of services like Pickhoops that offer to manage brackets for a small fee or banner ads—payment remains a stumbling block. A 2009 Microsoft survey estimated that 58 million Americans fill out brackets with about $12 billion wagered on the tournament.

 Though nobody has been charged with filling out an online bracket, March Madness may technically be America’s largest annual ritual of collective law breaking. “There are easy arguments that could be made that outside of Nevada that a bracket of any sort is illegal, especially if you’re moving it online,” says Alexander Ripps, a legal analyst at Gambling Compliance, a Washington, D.C., consultancy. The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, a federal law passed in 1992, prohibits sports betting except in Nevada, Delaware, Oregon, and Montana. 

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