My local newspaper picked up a pair of stories from syndicated services today. This one from the Los Angeles Times was in the center of the Business section:
Rita Embry of Miami won $100 from an online bookie last week. The 25-year-old graphic designer wasn’t playing the ponies or betting on the NBA playoffs. She cashed in on a wager that “X-Men: The Last Stand” would take in more than $81.5 million its opening weekend.
Ashley Shiffrin, a 25-year-old paralegal who scans the entertainment odds during lunch breaks at the Manhattan law firm where she works, lost $50 at the same website, at betus.com, after she underestimated how many people would buy tickets to “X-Men.” But she figures she’s still ahead: A week earlier she won $132 by backing Taylor Hicks to become this year’s “American Idol.”
Is it really smart to work in a law firm and spend your lunch hour visiting online betting sites?
Ironically, right next to it was this story from the New York Daily News:
An increasing number of workers are losing their jobs because of E-mail violations, according to an annual survey of about 300 companies released today.
A third of employers in the study sacked staffers in the past year for violating workplace E-mail policies. That’s up from about one in four last year.
Wonder how many of those firms have policies regulating which sites their employees can visit? Like, say, online casinos?
Ed Bott 