People who organize a pool of players of the Facebook NCAA Tournament Bracket game could face legal action. That’s right, if you are organizing a pool of people for the popular basketball tournament and you charge a fee to play and provide monetary payouts, you could be running afoul of federal gambling laws. Internet gambling prohibits this type of activity and since online gambling for Facebook would likely be comprised of bettors from many different states, that constitutes interstate gambling and therefore impinges on federal anti-gambling laws.

According to FBI spokesman Ross Rice: “It is fair to say this raises questions” with the FBI, he said.”There could be a violation if there’s a payout and if the operators take a cut.”

There are already some 20,000 online pools on Facebook for the tournament, according to this article, and some are asking for money to join up and are providing cash prizes to winners. Internet gambling is a huge market. According to the story, it is a $15 Billion industry.

This example clearly demonstrates the issues that arise when sports gambling and office pools converge with the far-reaching abilities of social networking. It’ll be an interesting development to monitor.