Everyone's favorite social network, Facebook, has gotten the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) due to the ability of members to set up what amount to gambling brackets based on the upcoming NCAA "March Madness" basketball tournament.
Every March, the NCAA's top 64 men's basketball teams enter into a tournament to play for top honors. And as Americans are wont to do with most all things competitive, they bet on the outcome of games and such. But that sort of thing has typically been restricted to office pools, or wagers among friends. With everyone moving online to interact with friends and family, however, it seems that the "pool" form of gambling has followed, and according to John W. of Online Casino Reports, that is what has brought the FBI to loiter around Zuckerberg's front door.
While no one has ever really gone after office pools, bringing it on to a site such as Facebook is just a little too open and too easy to detect to ignore. And as far as online gambling among US-based individuals is concerned, it falls under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), a piece of legislation put into effect in October 2006. According to an entry on Wikipedia, the law states, "unlawful internet gambling" means to place, receive, or otherwise knowingly transmit a bet or wager by means of the internet where such bet is unlawful under any law in the State in which the bet is initiated, received, or otherwise made." So, while office pools have always been overlooked, pools on Facebook are undoubtedly in violation of the UIGEA. At least the ones which involve real cash transfers, anyhow.