NCAA Basketball Expect $2.5 Billion in Illegal Bets to be Made

March Madness begins in the NCAA basketball world this week, and there are growing fears across the United States that more than a billion dollars will be paid to distracted workers and over $2.5 billion could be wagered on illegal sports bets, United States gambling news reports.

The federal wire act has been under some scrutiny recently but the Department of Justice specifically stated in December that sports betting was prohibited under the American gambling laws, so all of the $2.5 billion wagered will be illegal gambling.

There is a growing worry that employers across the country will be paying out wages to employees who are busying themselves checking scores, and listening and watching the games whilst they are supposed to be working. This could equate to over a billion dollars it is rumored, though what will doubtlessly concern the US government more, is the colossal sum of money that could be invested in the games illegally.

According to one survey done by MSN, a staggering 58% of workers who participated in the research said that they would be in a pool of some kind wagering on the basketball tournament. This is despite the fact that the US laws on gambling forbid them to bet on sports.

Further worries come as workers will also be allegedly slowing down net connections with streaming, leading to further disruptions to email services, and a total of 6% of workers have indicated that they plan to take some time off to watch March Madness. One survey from Penn State even theorizes that workers may suffer from a lack of sleep, due to the shift to daylight savings time.

online sportsbooks in America are outlawed with the vast majority of them inacessible to Americans, either directly or by refusing to take bets from American players. This has lead theorists to worry that a lot of underground bookies will surface as the tournament proceeds, and with sports gambling unregulated, unchecked and illegal, it could to a boost in criminal activity during the period.