Now that $21 million in Texas Lottery prize money is in limbo as a result of a pending lawsuit that has frozen the money, many people wonder how they can protect themselves from falling victim of a lottery pool dispute.
The six Lubbock winners are being sued by a seventh person who claims, but has no written proof, that she was supposed to be included in the winnings.
Who could have thought a little piece of paper could cause so much trouble? More than money, a winning ticket could bring you complication, stress and legal trouble you never thought possible. Much like in any case, prevention is the best solution. So how can you kill controversy before it starts?
Your office pool has won the lottery. You and everyone in your pool is rich. But what if someone claims a stake in the winnings despite a loose affiliation with the pool? How do you protect yourself and your winnings? There is one fundamental rule.
"The secret is to get in with a group of people that you trust," advised Tommy Turner, a seasoned attorney with experience in civil disputes.
Turner says protecting your pool is easier than it sounds.
"It's not rocket science," he says. "You just write down what you want to do, how many tickets you're going to buy, who's going to buy them and how the proceeds are going to be split."
Referencing the current lotto lawsuit and advising against loose association, Turner explains that word of mouth agreements are risky ventures.
"The burden of proof is on the plantiff, the lady that said she was left out of the lottery. She has a tough lawsuit ahead of her," thinks Turner.
KAMC-28 spoke with Joel Rodriguez, who has been inspired by the local jackpot to start his own pool. After hearing of the lawsuit, he says his pool will have a contract so that he's sure to cover all his bases.
"I would explain it that, 'Hey, this is to protect everybody. That way if we do win, everybody's entitled to it and if you don't sign here, you have no legal right'," he says.
Legal right is what has the current lotto winners in so much trouble. So the next ime your office wants to try to cash in, make sure you're prepared just in case the impossible happens.
Turner went on to say that having your contract drafted by a lawyer is a good idea, but not essential to making the agreement binding.
When I ran lottery pools for the jackpot games (California Super Lotto Plus), everyone that was in the pool printed their name on a piece of paper and showed that they had paid their $5. After the tickets were purchased, everyone got a photo copy of all the tickets AND the list of names. Although we never hit the big one, I also had the paperwork that California provided for lottery pools (all the legal stuff).
I think having a contract drafted by a lawyer sounds like a good idea. I know you don't have to go through a lawyer, but I think it offers more protection against those people trying to claim a piece of the prize when they weren't in the pool.
"The secret is to get in with a group of people that you trust," advised Tommy Turner, a seasoned attorney with experience in civil disputes.
The problems are the people not in the group wishing they had been in the pool after they hear about the win. As long as anyone who think they should have been in the pool can sue regardless of whether they contributed or not, there will be these types of problems.
"The secret is to get in with a group of people that you trust," advised Tommy Turner, a seasoned attorney with experience in civil disputes.
The problems are the people not in the group wishing they had been in the pool after they hear about the win. As long as anyone who think they should have been in the pool can sue regardless of whether they contributed or not, there will be these types of problems.
Hey - I've heard clerks saying they should get a share for selling the winning ticket, so this doesn't surprise me.
The other thing you have to do is make sure the pool chooses lump sum BEFORE you join. What if you join the pool, and after winning the pool the group (not you) chooses annuity?
The problem is when you have someone who is sometimes in the pool and sometimes not in. The win comes when they were on vacation or claim they asked Joe to front them the money or they were going to pay on wednesday, always some excuse. So even though they didn't really pay they feel entitled. After all, the money is so close and the others wouldn't be so cruel as to deny them a share of the jackpot just because they were a little late with the money...would they? Why, yes they would, as they should.
It seems to me to the best solution is to kick problem people out immediately and permanently unless you are willing to give a share of the jackpot to a freeloader or be sued by them later.
It's tough to be left out in the cold because you wouldn't give your dollar in time, but that's the nature of the lottery beast.
1. Tracking all members on our lotto groups website.
2. Sending an email to all members before each ticket purchase. Your name must be on the list to be considered part of the group. A very extensive paper trail. Very unlikely someone could win a case against us.
It is worth the extra work given the dramaticaly increased odds of winning when part of a group.
quote: "You just write down what you want to do, how many tickets you're going to buy, who's going to buy them and how the proceeds are going to be split."
All members pay in advance. write each members name that's in the pool. No additional members after tickets are purchased. make no promises to people that aren't in the pool unless it's in writing. Like if Joe/smoe was out the day the tickets were bought and he/she didn't pay in advance then their not in it for that drawing.
Work place lottery pools work fine until they win some money and some coworkers not in the pool start thinking of the winnings as free money to be shared with them.
Some will even file a frivolous law suit hoping pool members will opt to share their winnings rather than have the expense of a trial and a long wait to get their money.
If more pool managers made copies of the pool tickets with member names for each member before the drawings then there would be less chances of someone claiming they thought they were included in the pool even if they didn't contribute to it.
My hope is that the case is tossed out. This would end the debate. Tips on better lottery pool management need to be initiated early and re-iterated often.
HERE IS STH Australia THE LOTTO machine can print out syndicate entries, how they work is the individual ticket is a bearer claim form for that share.
um let me try n explain better.
say there are 10 people in the syndicate, and the cost is $200 for the entry. the machine will print 10 shared tickets, they each have 1 10th of the prize assigned to them, and cost $20 ea.
no need for legal battles, you get yas ticket dont lose it!
"The secret is to get in with a group of people that you trust," advised Tommy Turner, a seasoned attorney with experience in civil disputes.
The problems are the people not in the group wishing they had been in the pool after they hear about the win. As long as anyone who think they should have been in the pool can sue regardless of whether they contributed or not, there will be these types of problems.
The problem with trust is that all trust vanishes when money appears. I'm surprised any lawyer would recommend that. My word of advice, only trust that which is in writing, not people. People change but written words don't. Cheers,
Personally I hate pools, I won't play in them period and if I never win then thank God because it wasn't meant to be. Another thing I would recommend to any pool leader or member is too never, as rule of thumb, let a transient person play. Have a group and keep the same group of add people as you feel the need but not the once every other week person. My guess it that is the person with the regret the day after the big one, they tried to save a buck and lost a million. Ring, ring, hold on it's my lawyer, while you folks have been running this pool for 14 years I played one week back before Bush became president and just forgot to play this week. Ummm sure.... But that person will hold up your money collection. LOL. Cheers.
Imagine if you will if players could use credit cards or use the equity in the their home to buy lottery tickets. People who can't pay a few dollars to play and ask to borrow should be prohibitted from playing or face huge interest charges. Just as when you play the stock market and buy on margin the same principle should apply so of SuzieCoworker says Max can you pay for my share of the lottery pool I will say yes only if I get half your share so if 4 of us pay and play and i pay for SuzieCoworker, it get split 5ways but i get 1/2 of SuzieCoworker prize if she gives me the money BEFORE we collect. IF she chooses to pay me when she gets her share my cut is 75%. This manure about people not paying before you play needs to stop. This goes along with the mentality of those who buy on no interest no payments for 2 years but when u dont pay BEFORE the interest free period you accumalate all the interest payments not paid at the end of the period. People like this SuzieCoworker need to have their buying priviledges revoked.
The other day I went to buy a lottery ticker and my co worker was buying something and i was buying my ticket and she said aloud that I will share while I was at the register and I said No I am sharing I am playing for myself. From now on I will buy lottery tickets without people I know present.
Coworkers can be a$$es sometimes. just like when you buy lunch and they say they will pay you later and then when you tell them how much it is they say I did not know it was the much... and I make sure I show them the reciept....I am also the kind the asks for a seperate check when i know there are pepple who dont tip in a group setting so I can tell the servier it will be worth their while to do so.
In our dept. we purchase an occassional lottery ticket for the 12 members who work together.
I am not an attorney.
When I send out a photo copy of the ticket(s) I have my own disclaimer on the printed page..............
“Joanna” has provided (1) ticket here for Illinois Mega Millions Game. Your name must be on this list to be considered part of the group. No additional members to be listed after tickets are purchased. We all have a chance to dream of splitting the winnings of $XXX Millions. This Lottery Pool amount is for a single winning ticket. Any winning ticket for a small amount will go towards purchase of future lottery ticket(s).
The following people agree to split equally the winnings from the following ticket drawing on 03/24/06 and agree to pay any and all of their own taxes out of their share.
Then each name in our dept. is shown on a list.
...................................
People who have left the firm are no longer shown on the dept. list for a winning share.
What is the point of having everyone sign a disclaimer if only one person actually invested money in the ticket? If Joanna wants to share her winnings with all or any of her co-workers she doesn't need a contract with them before the drawing. That contract sounds more like a trap than protection because if someone signs an agreement that they expect to share the winnings of someone lottery ticket in which they invested nothing then they must assume the other person expects the same of them.
Sounds like for an investment of $1 Joanna has secured the rights to share the lottery winnings of everyone on her list. I think if anyone on that list had a winning lottery ticket and Joanna wanted a share, they would have a hard time convincing a court that the agreement was only good if her ticket won.
When I ran lottery pools for the jackpot games (California Super Lotto Plus), everyone that was in the pool printed their name on a piece of paper and showed that they had paid their $5. After the tickets were purchased, everyone got a photo copy of all the tickets AND the list of names. Although we never hit the big one, I also had the paperwork that California provided for lottery pools (all the legal stuff).
I think having a contract drafted by a lawyer sounds like a good idea. I know you don't have to go through a lawyer, but I think it offers more protection against those people trying to claim a piece of the prize when they weren't in the pool.
"The secret is to get in with a group of people that you trust," advised Tommy Turner, a seasoned attorney with experience in civil disputes.
The problems are the people not in the group wishing they had been in the pool after they hear about the win. As long as anyone who think they should have been in the pool can sue regardless of whether they contributed or not, there will be these types of problems.
"The secret is to get in with a group of people that you trust," advised Tommy Turner, a seasoned attorney with experience in civil disputes.
The problems are the people not in the group wishing they had been in the pool after they hear about the win. As long as anyone who think they should have been in the pool can sue regardless of whether they contributed or not, there will be these types of problems.
Hey - I've heard clerks saying they should get a share for selling the winning ticket, so this doesn't surprise me.
i would join a lottery pool in a minute if i knew someone in my area doing one.i don't mind sharing 50 million with fifteen people.......
I will get into a pool today, as we are expecting temps in the high 90's
DD
The other thing you have to do is make sure the pool chooses lump sum BEFORE you join. What if you join the pool, and after winning the pool the group (not you) chooses annuity?
The problem is when you have someone who is sometimes in the pool and sometimes not in. The win comes when they were on vacation or claim they asked Joe to front them the money or they were going to pay on wednesday, always some excuse. So even though they didn't really pay they feel entitled. After all, the money is so close and the others wouldn't be so cruel as to deny them a share of the jackpot just because they were a little late with the money...would they? Why, yes they would, as they should.
It seems to me to the best solution is to kick problem people out immediately and permanently unless you are willing to give a share of the jackpot to a freeloader or be sued by them later.
It's tough to be left out in the cold because you wouldn't give your dollar in time, but that's the nature of the lottery beast.
Its really simple, if its not in writing, it doesn't exsist!
I protect the interests of all members by:
1. Tracking all members on our lotto groups website.
2. Sending an email to all members before each ticket purchase. Your name must be on the list to be considered part of the group. A very extensive paper trail. Very unlikely someone could win a case against us.
It is worth the extra work given the dramaticaly increased odds of winning when part of a group.
Why play?
quote: "You just write down what you want to do, how many tickets you're going to buy, who's going to buy them and how the proceeds are going to be split."
All members pay in advance. write each members name that's in the pool. No additional members after tickets are purchased. make no promises to people that aren't in the pool unless it's in writing. Like if Joe/smoe was out the day the tickets were bought and he/she didn't pay in advance then their not in it for that drawing.
It's simple, pay, signed your name, and get copies of tickets.
Work place lottery pools work fine until they win some money and some coworkers not in the pool start thinking of the winnings as free money to be shared with them.
Some will even file a frivolous law suit hoping pool members will opt to share their winnings rather than have the expense of a trial and a long wait to get their money.
If more pool managers made copies of the pool tickets with member names for each member before the drawings then there would be less chances of someone claiming they thought they were included in the pool even if they didn't contribute to it.
My hope is that the case is tossed out. This would end the debate. Tips on better lottery pool management need to be initiated early and re-iterated often.
HERE IS STH Australia THE LOTTO machine can print out syndicate entries, how they work is the individual ticket is a bearer claim form for that share.
um let me try n explain better.
say there are 10 people in the syndicate, and the cost is $200 for the entry. the machine will print 10 shared tickets, they each have 1 10th of the prize assigned to them, and cost $20 ea.
no need for legal battles, you get yas ticket dont lose it!
"The secret is to get in with a group of people that you trust," advised Tommy Turner, a seasoned attorney with experience in civil disputes.
The problems are the people not in the group wishing they had been in the pool after they hear about the win. As long as anyone who think they should have been in the pool can sue regardless of whether they contributed or not, there will be these types of problems.
The problem with trust is that all trust vanishes when money appears. I'm surprised any lawyer would recommend that. My word of advice, only trust that which is in writing, not people. People change but written words don't. Cheers,
Acro
Personally I hate pools, I won't play in them period and if I never win then thank God because it wasn't meant to be. Another thing I would recommend to any pool leader or member is too never, as rule of thumb, let a transient person play. Have a group and keep the same group of add people as you feel the need but not the once every other week person. My guess it that is the person with the regret the day after the big one, they tried to save a buck and lost a million. Ring, ring, hold on it's my lawyer, while you folks have been running this pool for 14 years I played one week back before Bush became president and just forgot to play this week. Ummm sure.... But that person will hold up your money collection. LOL. Cheers.
I play and run, a lot of pools.I always get photo copys and signatures to protect everyone.
Imagine if you will if players could use credit cards or use the equity in the their home to buy lottery tickets. People who can't pay a few dollars to play and ask to borrow should be prohibitted from playing or face huge interest charges. Just as when you play the stock market and buy on margin the same principle should apply so of SuzieCoworker says Max can you pay for my share of the lottery pool I will say yes only if I get half your share so if 4 of us pay and play and i pay for SuzieCoworker, it get split 5ways but i get 1/2 of SuzieCoworker prize if she gives me the money BEFORE we collect. IF she chooses to pay me when she gets her share my cut is 75%. This manure about people not paying before you play needs to stop. This goes along with the mentality of those who buy on no interest no payments for 2 years but when u dont pay BEFORE the interest free period you accumalate all the interest payments not paid at the end of the period. People like this SuzieCoworker need to have their buying priviledges revoked.
The other day I went to buy a lottery ticker and my co worker was buying something and i was buying my ticket and she said aloud that I will share while I was at the register and I said No I am sharing I am playing for myself. From now on I will buy lottery tickets without people I know present.
Coworkers can be a$$es sometimes. just like when you buy lunch and they say they will pay you later and then when you tell them how much it is they say I did not know it was the much... and I make sure I show them the reciept....I am also the kind the asks for a seperate check when i know there are pepple who dont tip in a group setting so I can tell the servier it will be worth their while to do so.
well i am glad i got that off my chest
In our dept. we purchase an occassional lottery ticket for the 12 members who work together.
I am not an attorney.
When I send out a photo copy of the ticket(s) I have my own disclaimer on the printed page..............
“Joanna” has provided (1) ticket here for Illinois Mega Millions Game. Your name must be on this list to be considered part of the group. No additional members to be listed after tickets are purchased.We all have a chance to dream of splitting the winnings of $XXX Millions.
This Lottery Pool amount is for a single winning ticket.
Any winning ticket for a small amount will go towards purchase of future lottery ticket(s).
The following people agree to split equally the winnings from the following ticket drawing on 03/24/06 and agree to pay any and all of their own taxes out of their share.
Then each name in our dept. is shown on a list.
...................................
People who have left the firm are no longer shown on the dept. list for a winning share.
kjsfriend,
What is the point of having everyone sign a disclaimer if only one person actually invested money in the ticket? If Joanna wants to share her winnings with all or any of her co-workers she doesn't need a contract with them before the drawing. That contract sounds more like a trap than protection because if someone signs an agreement that they expect to share the winnings of someone lottery ticket in which they invested nothing then they must assume the other person expects the same of them.
Sounds like for an investment of $1 Joanna has secured the rights to share the lottery winnings of everyone on her list. I think if anyone on that list had a winning lottery ticket and Joanna wanted a share, they would have a hard time convincing a court that the agreement was only good if her ticket won.
RJOh
hi
do you theSNM for may 28 29 and 30?
Have you checked the result page?
I will get into a pool today, as we are expecting temps in the high 90's
DD
Just watch out for those pool sharks, DD.
I will get into a pool today, as we are expecting temps in the high 90's
DD
Just watch out for those pool sharks, DD.
Oh, the dreaded pool sharks !!!
I will get into a pool today, as we are expecting temps in the high 90's
DD
Just watch out for those pool sharks, DD.
Oh, the dreaded pool sharks !!!
I'm going to Florida in October. I'll have to worry about alligators. Florida is the only state with crocodiles.
I will get into a pool today, as we are expecting temps in the high 90's
DD
Just watch out for those pool sharks, DD.
Oh, the dreaded pool sharks !!!
I'm going to Florida in October. I'll have to worry about alligators. Florida is the only state with crocodiles.
Be very careful, CASH.
Crocs and Gators don't do annuities, either-
they eat you in lump sums..
DD