Rule #1 – You Can’t Cause a Celeb’s Death to Win

One set of rules I found at online sportsbooks says it this way – “Thou shalt not murder thy picks.” Going on, the rule forbids “harming, murdering, or in any manner affecting the general health or well-being” of any celebrity to earn points.

THIS SEEMS SILLY: But there’s a very real history of the involvement of so-called assassination pools and death pools in actual crimes, and most online or commercial death pools have to go out of their way to say this, to discourage participants from going way too far to win their game.

Rule #2 – Only Approved Celebrities Count

I found this definition for “celebrity” in Merriam-Webster’s – “a famous or celebrated person.” Pretty much any famous person counts. Celebs may include sports figures, people from the film or music industry, TV stars, media figures, heads of state, persons of interest, even scientists and inventors. Generally, you can’t pick people who are locally famous or only well-known to a select group of people.

How will you know if a person you’ve picked “counts” as a celeb? This is a big part of the fun of most games – revealing your picks and having them vetoed or confirmed by the other players. Some games make use of the Notable Names Database or some other list of famous people to determine a pick’s includability.
In most games, only human celebrities count, so no famous animals.

Rule #3 – You Have to Pick 15 Number of Celebs

Celebrity Death Pool games online come in two modes: completely free where you earn points for bragging rights alone with a maximum of 15 bets. And a premium mode where you can win amazon vouchers by betting a maximum of €1 and then win x10 if the date is correct.

Rule #4 – Duration Matters

Most games set a start and end time. In fact, the game allows bets on dates between the next fortnight and a maximum of one calendar year. Points for free bets, are calculated with a Gaussian, the more points you get the closer to the celebrity's date of death.

Rule #5 – How to Score Celeb Deaths

The scoring method of the free game is as follows:

• If the celebrity dies on that date you earn 50 points;
• If the celebrity dies seven days earlier or later the points are scaled by a minimum of 15 with a Gaussian.
• If the date is passed, the chance to bet on a new celebrity is added again

The scoring method of the premium game is as follows:

• You can point only on free celebrity;
• You can point only 1€ for celebrity
• if you guess the day and the celebrity, then the winnings are returned in the sform of an amazon voucher, valued at 10 times your stake.

Conclusion

Once you get past the “Oh, my” element of death pools, it’s easy to see why they’re popular among families and groups of friends. These days, celebrity news and gossip have all but taken over. If we’re going to read about, watch, and talk about famous people all the time, making side bets on the dates of their deaths is a natural extension of our weird obsession with their lives. PLEASE NOTE: If you’re going to operate a death pool, be sure you’re clear about the rules and point system ahead of time. Have someone hold everyone’s entry or digitize them and post them for everyone to track and clarify your betting and payout arrangements so that all participants understand what’s at stake.