Gambling at work
August 21, 2008
I’ve been asked about a particular issue at work today, relating to gambling in the workplace. You’d think this was a pretty cut and dry issue, i.e. all types of gambling should be completely banned. But there’s a couple of different areas to think about:
- Online gambling. This has become a bit of a national obsession in recent years, with literally hundreds of thousands of sites devoted to blackjack (such as this one), poker, bingo and other games. As with social networking, this can pose a big problem for organisations in terms of distraction and productivity, but has the added dimension of the morality of accepting a ‘vice’ within the working day. Many organisations are now adopting acceptable internet usage policies and will normally completely ban gambling sites. I reported ages ago on a (slightly dubious) report that found that allowing employees a reasonable level of personal internet use could increase productivity, and that an alternative if you’re not able to fully trust your employees could be blocking certain sites except for designated break and lunch times. However it’s quite unlikely that a company will include gambling sites within these arrangements because of the more problematic nature of the content and the obvious links to addiction and debt problems. Personally I wouldn’t even feel comfortable including access to these sorts of sites on PCs that have been designated specifically for personal use, if your company has this provision. I think it’s just asking for trouble and a risk not worth taking.
- Company sweepstakes. This is a little less clear than the online issue because it does not pose the same anti-social or personal risks as other types of gambling, and a bit of fun around the office when there’s a significant sporting event taking place can arguably enhance morale and strengthen employee relationships. We ran a sweepstake in my company for this year’s Euros and I have to admit that it did add a more enjoyable dimension to the finals since all the British teams were absent, even though I was doomed from the beginning with Greece! I think what needs to be considered here is the frequency of these sorts of activities, and their effect on the workplace whether positive or negative. To ensure that this can be monitored and controlled, perhaps it is best to state that employees should not run sweepstakes without the permission of management. The employee who ran our sweepstake actually asked my permission before announcing it and I thought it was fine at the time (although he didn’t fix it so that I drew a good team as per my request!)
I think as long as you are clear in policies and handbooks, the issue of workplace gambling can be handled well without having to restrict everyone having a bit of a laugh every now and then. What do you think?
Things to consider:Compete online with a game of internet poker !
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