With the football tournament now in full swing, People Management asks employment lawyers if office lotteries can land HR in legal hot water
Following the start of the World Cup in Qatar on Sunday and kick-off times taking place during office hours, escalating employee excitement is inevitable. Many workplaces may have started a sweepstake to help staff bonding, as is tradition during major sporting events – but employment lawyers have warned that, this year, your jovial sweepstakes might be breaking the law.
Pre-Covid, a sweepstake required very little thought as homeworking was a rarely seen luxury. But in the new post-pandemic world of work, remote working employees who enter your sweepstake could be breaking the law, cautions Richard Bradley, associate solicitor and gambling regulation expert at Poppleston Allen.
Bradley says that with the shift towards hybrid working, organisers now need to be more cautious. “While formal gambling activity is heavily regulated by the Gambling Commission, there is an exception designed to allow the general public to have a bit of fun by taking part in what is officially called a work lottery for major events such as the Grand National or a World Cup,” he explains.
“But what many people may not realise is that the rules are very clear in that you can only sell physical tickets and all players must work in the same office – contests running across different office locations of the same company are not allowed.”
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