The "square pool" is a 10-by-10 game of chance, a staple of Super Bowl parties.
They make parties more exciting for fans whose teams fail to make it to the big game. They can also be a source of camaraderie in an office and, according to newly elected Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, they're mostly legal in the Grand Canyon State.
The key distinction Brnovich said, "is a third party benefiting directly or indirectly from the the gambling?"
Here's how the squares work:
You draw a grid ten squares wide by ten squares high. One team's name goes along the side and the other across the top. People buy squares, signing their name until all of the holes are filled. A random drawing of numbers 0 through 9 for each team determines what number you fill in on the graph. The numbers will equate to the last digit in the score of each team.
Prizes are announced and at the end of each quarter, the person with the square that matches the score wins a prize.
Brnovich is no stranger to this type of game. He used to head the Arizona Department of Gaming and enjoys sports contests like this with his longtime friends.
"I've done at least the last 20 years of March Madness," he said. "I wish I were better, but I have done well a couple of years."
When it comes to the legality of Super Bowl squares pools, the attorney general gave background on the law and why, as long as you're not using it as a way of making money for an organization or business, you should be in the clear.
"In Arizona, we have a general prohibition on gambling with narrow exceptions," Brnovich said. "So, if anyone's getting a benefit either directly or indirectly from the gambling, it would be illegal. But, if a group of us got together and did squares or had like a fantasy football league and all of the money was distributed to the players and no one benefited, then it would be legal."
Brnovich is aware of the roughly $120 million legally bet in Vegas for the last Super Bowl and that an estimated $8 billion was bet illegally.
"So we know, we recognize that there are folks betting on the game," he said. "But we don't want to go out there and make criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens."
