Hobbies And Interests
Legality
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 allowed for contests with cash prizes to be held if the "outcome reflects the relative knowledge of the participants." This means the pool cannot be a straight guessing game and requires some skill to win. This is why an office pool guessing when a pregnant co-worker will give birth is technically illegal, but why an Oscar pool can be considered legal. Other requirements for the pool to be legal are that rules are disclosed at the beginning of the pool and that the winner must declare his winnings as income and pay taxes on them.
Points
Each participant in the pool is given a sheet of Oscar nominees and he must circle one in each category. The simplest way to determine points in an Oscar pool is to give one point for each correct guess. This makes the contest much simpler for those counting the points. Since some categories have fewer than five nominees, contests may make all five nominee categories worth five points while making each category with three or four nominees worth only three or four points. Another choice for scoring is to make some categories worth even fewer points when party members have heard of few or none of the nominees. This can occur in the Best Short Film and Best Animated Short Film categories.
Start Time
You may want to set a start time deadline a few minutes before the Oscar show begins to make sure that all ballots are collected and organized. This prevents participants from sneaking in late and getting the first few categories correct after they have already been announced. You may allow latecomers into the competition, but they should not be given credit for the categories that have already been awarded. This can also be used to ensure that guests get to the party on time.
Prizes
One of the easiest ways to create a grand prize for your Oscar pool is to charge an entry fee into the competition and give the player with the most points all of the money from the entry fees. Another method is to give the second place finisher his entry fee back and the first place finisher the rest of the money in the pot. How you decide to reward the prizes is up to you.
Tie-breakers
You can choose from an unlimited number of tie-breakers in case you have two participants tied for first place. Use a silly tiebreaker such as New York Magazine's "How many Avatar jokes will there be during the show?" or Odd Todd's "How long will the Oscars be?" No matter what you use for the question, make sure that the telecast will answer the question itself and that everybody who submits a ballot answers the tie-breaker, as well.