Basketball

What might have begun as a friendly office pool on the NCAA basketball tournament ended up costing three Wall Street traders their jobs and left another worker $330,000 in debt.

Elaborate, high-stakes betting pools were set up at many Wall Street firms, where individual teams were each assigned a share price based on expected performance, then traded like stocks.

At some firms, terminals were programmed to carry price quotes on the college teams.

The gambling apparently got out of hand at Smith Barney, where three low-level bond trading employees were fired last week “for conduct inconsistent with the standards of the firm,” spokesman Bob Connor said.

One employee reportedly sold Duke stock short, that is, sold stock that he did not yet own with the hope that the price would go down and he could make money.

However, Duke kept winning, driving its stock price up.

The employee is not expected to be able to repay his $330,000 debt.