Gambling Policy Template

Gambling Policy and Statment The NCAA has established strict guidelines concerning student-athletes' involvement in gambling and bribery. Student-athletes shall not knowingly participate in any gambling activity that involves intercollegiate athletics or professional athletics, through a bookmaker, parlay card, or any other method employed. CD – Preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder, or being used to support crime. FO – Ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way. CV – Protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

This increase in the availability and accessibility of online gambling means gambling in the workplace, and during working hours, is now more possible than ever. This phenomenon is making businesses more vulnerable to issues arising from gambling.

Do your employees gamble at work?

If this question has not occurred to you it probably should according to experts who are concerned about the impact changes in the gambling environment could be having on your workplace.

Experts say with today's smart phones and tablets, punters can bet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from home, 'on the go' and yes, even from work.

And with an estimated one in 100 employees likely to have a gambling problem there is no room for any employer to assume it can't happen to them.

Why should this matter to HR practitioners?

Most of the time gambling is a harmless recreational activity and most workplaces organise social gambling activities like footy tipping and Melbourne Cup sweeps but the changing face of gambling can mean it's becoming more of an issue for workplaces.

Today, employees might be using workplace computers, or company provided tablets and smart phones to gamble.

Whether an employer knows employees are gambling, or even sanctions it, may be a moot point but it might also form the basis for legal action against an employer according to a senior associate in workplace law.

Joel Zyngier, a senior associate with Holding Redlich specialising in workplace law says employers should assume gambling is taking place in their workplace, and take steps to avoid it becoming a problem.

How can out of control gambling affect a workplace?

There are three ways out of control gambling can have an impact on the workplace including: reducing productivity, increasing absence, theft and fraud.

For example:

• An employee who gambles during working hours, using their smart phone to place bets or play online poker, is not focused on work and is not using work time effectively.
• An employee who develops a gambling problem and gambles outside of work hours, for instance on the pokies, may be absent from work more often, taking extended lunch breaks to gamble or even missing parts of or full work days.
• An employee who has a problem with gambling and has access to company finances, may abuse their position in the workplace to fund their gambling addiction. Importantly, those who have done this and been caught are often found to have behaved completely out of character but a study of major court cases between 20082010 identified over $77 million lost, with employers the biggest victims of gambling related crime.

What can employers do?

Every employer in Victoria has a duty of care under the Occupational Health and Safety Act to provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and without risks to health – both physical and psychological health. But what does this mean in the context of gambling?

According to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a gambling disorder is a behavioural addiction which can result in psychological harm. This psychological harm represents a health and safety risk to employees, creating an obligation on employers to address gambling in the workplace.

To fulfil their duty of care, an employer should eliminate or reduce the likelihood of problem or risky gambling at work, as much as possible.

It makes sense to protect the workplace and the employer against potential legal action, as well as to protect the workplace and employees against the negative impacts outlined above.

Four things HR practitioners can do to reduce the impact of gambling at work?

When addressing gambling in the workplace, HR practitioners can

1. Assess the risk. For example, use of workplace computers and digital devices for gambling.
   
2. Adopt a preventative approach by distributing responsible gambling information to all employees.
   
3. Communicate with employees about responsible gambling and provide information about help and support options available.
   
4. Adopt a workplace policy on gambling. This policy should outline what is considered acceptable in the workplace for example: permitting social gambling activities like footy tipping but prohibiting the use of workplace equipment to access online gambling sites.
   

The policy may be similar to those already developed for the use of drugs and alcohol in the workplace and should be informed by the particular circumstances of each individual workplace.

You walk down the halls of your workplace and activity is at a level of frenzy you’ve seldom seen. It has nothing to do with work, of course. It’s all about who will win the big game on Sunday.

OK, most of it is harmless and will expire as the clock winds down on the field. But there may also be an undercurrent of money changing hands, based on who won, who lost, and what the point spread was. This may not be so harmless.

As we noted in yesterday’s Daily Advisor, the only side that always loses in workplace gambling is the employer. Lost productivity due to time spent on just one of many sports gambling activities, Fantasy Football, costs employers a cool billion dollars a week.

What it all points to is that you may need a policy on workplace gambling. Easy to write? Not so fast, sport. Actually, there are quite a number of points that need to be observed in formulating it. Thanks to SmartPolicies, BLR’s CD-based encyclopedia of more than 350 prewritten, and ready-to-use HR policies, here are some questions to ask.

–Will you prohibit all gambling or just illegal gambling? What about in special situations, such as entertaining clients?

–Are all gambling items banned from the premises? How about a deck of cards or a handheld video poker game? Or a legally purchased lottery ticket?

–What is your policy on searching employees and on what happens if they refuse to cooperate with an investigation?

–Problem gambling is often considered an addiction, just like drugs or alcohol. The Americans with Disabilities Act does not specifically protect gambling addicts from adverse employment actions, but state law may. What are the provisions in your state?

–Can you legally ban employees from gambling during off-duty hours if you feel it reflects badly on your brand or organization?

–Where are the limits if you choose only a partial ban? Is it OK for individual employees to purchase lottery tickets but not OK for employees to jointly buy them?

If you’d like to know how SmartPolicies answered these questions, here’s an abridged version of the sample policy on the CD. Keep in mind that all SmartPolicies are modifiable on your computer, so if this one is tougher (or more lenient) than what you’d prefer, it can be instantly customized to your use.

“Gambling is not permitted on company property during work hours, during breaks, during lunch periods in the company cafeteria, while traveling on company business, at company functions, or while entertaining clients.

“Company facilities may not be used to gamble (examples are given.) Gambling paraphernalia is not permitted on company facilities or in company vehicles. Gambling includes, but is not limited to, poker, horse betting, fantasy football bets, etc., etc.

“Any drawings, contests, or similar advertising promotions are to be approved by the human resources [or legal] department to ensure the promotion is not an illegal lottery.

“Employees desks, lockers, vehicles, Internet usage, email … may be inspected to ensure compliance with this policy. Employees are expected to cooperate with any investigation and employees who violate this policy are subject to discipline, up to and including termination.”

There are more than 350 other prewritten, legally reviewed policies on this CD and, if you’ll allow us a short plug for it, we think SmartPolicies is the program that smart HR managers should use to quickly and effectively meet all their HR policy writing needs. You can prove that to yourself by taking our marketing department’s offer to let you evaluate the program for 30 days at no cost or obligation. Details on how to do that, along with a look at the full table of contents and another sample of the program, can be accessed by clicking on the links below.

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Gambling Policy Template Printable