I have to admit, I don't have a clue. But I believe it's like betting. You give the person money, they give you a box and if you're box wins, you win such and such a percent of the money. Anyone with better knowledge please join in. The mom emailed all her contacts with the info. LOL
I don't know, I just felt like "wow...really?" when she told me about it. It just seems so wrong for a kid to be running a pool...but maybe I'm just too uptight?
For those unfamiliar, here is how it works. It's going to be long, so be prepared.
It is a form of gambling and often illegal in many states. You are betting on the scores of the game, and not so much the team that wins the game, like you would with a bookie. There are variances but the concept is the same. The most common is to draw 100 (10x10 grid) squares on a piece of paper, in which people will put their names. Off to the left side of the grid and to the top of the grid, 40 (4x10 grid) more squares are drawn per side. These will be used to put numbers 0-9.
The seller of the grid will sell the 100 squares for a set amount per square. Lets say $10 per square. If the seller sells them all, he/she will have collected $1,000. The seller designates before hand, that he/she will pay out $200 per quarter with no payout for overtime. 4 quarters to a football game, seller pays out $800 total and keeps $200.
Once the seller sells out all 100 squares, he/she will usually ask some of the people who bought squares to pick numbers 0-9 to fill up the 40 squares. This is usually to ensure the buyers that no cheating was involved in assigning numbers. They will go one row at a time until all the squares are filled with a number. Once all the numbers have been filled in, each person that bought a square will get their numbers for each quarter.
So for example, lets say I bought a square and I have the following numbers per quarter.
1st. Quarter Green Bay 7 Pittsburgh 3
2nd. Quarter Green Bay 4 Pittsburgh 2
3rd. Quarter Green Bay 8 Pittsburgh 2
4th. Quarter Green Bay 1 Pittsburgh 5
If you watched the game, the scores were as follows:
1st. GB-14, Pitt-0. So who ever had 4 (last digit of 14) for GB and 0 for Pitt would have won the $200 for this qtr.
2nd. GB-21, Pitt-10. So who ever had 1 for GB and 0 for Pitt would have won the $200 for this qtr.
3rd. GB-21, Pitt-17. So who ever had 1 for GB and 7 for Pitt would have won the $200 for this qtr.
4th. GB 31, Pitt-25. So ever had 1 for GB and 5 for Pitt would have won the $200 for this qtr. Which would've been me.
Someone mentioned this fell through. Which a lot of times, its possible to happen. You will often get people who will not want to buy squares if the cost per square is too high. For example: selling squares for $50 or more per square. People will not buy if they know the full amount sold is not the full amount being paid out. For example: In my example, I mentioned the seller would only be paying out $200 per quarter and pocketing $200. People will not buy in if they know the seller is pocketing money already. They would expect the seller to divide the money evenly among 4 quarters, in which in my example, $250 per quarter.
I hope I didn't confuse you too much. I hope I explained it enough to make sense. There are many different ways you can do this. You can sell the squares for more money, sell only 25 squares, give people the same number for the whole game instead of different number per quarter. You get the idea, I hope.
Maybe she is too young didn't catch the age, but we do this all the time, or at least I participate in them, I don't actually organize the squares, but yes I do believe all the money is supposed to go into the pot, because there are typically 4 winners, 1 per quarter, so all the money paid in to the square pot, goes to the 4 winners, not the organizer. So not sure what that is all about.
