Quote:
Originally Posted by overcast
Take a decent annual salary out for organizing a pool that most likely is run on a website that handles everything? Seems a little ridiculous...
Quote:
Originally Posted by anthai.lu
Dude that runs my pool takes 10% out automatically.
That pool has been discussed in this thread before and reached 600K prize for the first time ever. Pretty sick...
600k is pretty large and 60k might be a reasonable rake, not necessarily for the workload alone, but also for the risk. Personally I wouldn't run that because of the risk. The workload can be managed with a well designed system and process. We could scale ours (currently ~500 people, ~2000 entries, >$20k) quite a bit larger and not add that much work. The biggest effort by far is the collection & accounting. Customer support is a distant second. Once the season begins and the $$ is all deposited, the workload drops to near zero.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nyc999
At what point does that type of pool become too big from a legality perspective? Largest one I've been apart of has about a 200K pot.
The size itself isn't the issue, it's the rake. Taking any kind of fees or rake from any sports pool causes it to violate the law in many (most?) jurisdictions.
But in reality it's the size *plus* the fact they're raking that will generate the risk. If you run a pool and rake a few hundred bucks and don't attract any attention, although that's technically illegal, you're probably not going to raise any flags. Once you reach the point where you're making thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, you're probably going to get on someone's radar.
Personally I wouldn't play in one that large either. While the poolrunners are at risk legally, the players are probably at risk for their buyins.
Here's a survivor that hit 200k a few years back that got busted
http://linemakers.sportingnews.com/n...s-seizes-money
Here's a 600k box pool that got busted last year
http://nypost.com/2013/12/22/wife-ra...er-bowl-pools/
There are other similar stories out there for $100k+ pools getting busted.
Our pools are larger than most (but certainly not on the level of some of these) and we always clearly state they are rake free, just to help reduce any attention we might get. Still, it's a lot of $$ to hold and be on the hook for.
I don't have any fear of any legal action for me or my partner- but just because we *don't* take a rake doesn't mean some Fed that stumbles on us would necessarily believe it. There's always the risk that we could get shut down and investigated, which would suck.
I don't begrudge anyone willing to take the risk and rake their pool. I wish like hell the laws allowed people to run pools and make a reasonable fee... We would certainly do so because there is a lot of time involved.