Are Super Bowl Squares Legal? Square Pools For Super Bowl 54

• The NFL and Rocket Mortgage launched a Super Bowl square contest.
• Rocket Mortgage is set to give away over $1 million in cash prizes.
• Many local Super Bowl squares would be considered unlawful.

MAIMI – Super Bowl LIV will finally arrive this Sunday and many companies across the country have begun hosting office square pools. As well as local sports bars and private Super Bowl parties, fans are already preparing square pools for the big day.

Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans, Detroit based home finance and mortgage lender firm, has also created its own Super Bowl square contest by partnering with the NFL. This event is known as the Rocket Mortgage Super Bowl Square Sweepstakes and is the largest official game for Super Bowl squares in history.

Super Bowl LIV squares are very common during and around Super Bowl Sunday. The question on a lot of sports fans’ minds, however, is the legality of it all.

Rocket Mortgage Super Bowl Square Contest

In the case of Rocket Mortgage’s contest, it is legal as they do not ask for an entry fee. The NFL partnered with Rocket Mortgage to create this contest in celebration of Rocket Mortgage being the official mortgage sponsor of the NFL.

Winners will be randomly selected one at a time throughout Super Bowl 54. The lucky person who is positioned in the selected square for each score change will win $50,000.

Quicken Loans CEO Jay Farner expressed excitement over the event saying “At Rocket Mortgage we love supercharging the excitement level surrounding huge, international sporting events, and there are none bigger than the Super Bowl. It’s our hope that the money we give away through the squares during Super Bowl LIV will change lives and maybe even help some lucky fans buy the home of their dreams. No matter the score, we are excited that the Rocket Mortgage Super Bowl Squares Sweepstakes will undoubtedly have football fans across the country on the edge of their seats.”

Local Super Bowl Square Pools

What separates the Rocket Mortgage sweepstakes from your local super bowl party squares, besides the $50,000 cash prize, is that unlike Rocket Mortgage, there is usually an entry fee. This entry fee paired with the win by chance nature of Super Bowl Squares constitutes as a private lottery.

There are three elements that deem an event an unlawful lottery. Those are entrée fees, prizes, and chance. Private lotteries are essentially not allowed in all state laws in the event that a certain person is profiting no matter what the outcome of the game.

Because Super Bowl squares tend to use randomly selected numbers as opposed to the entrants selecting their own numbers, Super Bowl squares may qualify as a prohibited form of lottery.

In addition, the Wire Act of 1961 prohibits the exchange of money that was wagered on sporting events via wire transfer. That means Super Bowl squares that are conducted across state lines would be considered a federal crime.

Although a tradition among Super Bowl fans, it may be best to air on the side of caution when participating in Super Bowl squares for Super Bowl 54.

News tags: Rocket Mortgage | Super Bowl 54 | Super Bowl LIV | Super Bowl Squares