May be this guy is not a thief and his buddies are jealous of his win and trying to make his life miserable. There are many who would like/work to make your life like hell if they remain miserable/poor and you suddenly become rich. If you are in a pool and even if someone else other than you bought the pool's ticket and by your good luck you won on your own ticket. The remaining memebers can lie against you and say that you bought the ticket and you may not have any thing to defend yourself unless there is some documentary evidence.

Usually it is the odd man out complaining, this time it appears the ticket buyer was the scum.  It never fails, the pack animal mentality of humans is doomed from the beginning.  Learn to stand on your own two feet and you won't have to worry about friends cheating you.  I met a lot of guys in the Army I would trust my life with, but I wouldn't trust the guy across the street with my dirty laundry.

The lesson is, as usual, if you are in a lottery pool don't pretend a ticket you bought was an extra one purchased with your own dollar unless you have proof.  I might go in with one friend on a lottery ticket, but if I won something big with my "extra" ticket I would certainly expect to give something to my losing partner anyway. Either go it alone or split it with the group, but don't try to have it both ways. 

That's exactly why I don't buy extra tickets outside of my lottery pool.

If you're in a pool, and you're buying the tickets, kiss the proof concept goodbye. Some one will always accuse you of fudging the tickets.  Once the first person accuses you of something, the remainder of the group will automatically form a mob, making you out to to be the worst person on the planet.  Whether your are guilty, or not, makes no difference.  Nothing greater then beating your chest!

I beg to differ against the folks who presume the ticket WASNT purchase by the wife. She could just have easily bought a series of tickets that day or a few days earlier.

I belong to a lottery pool and dern proud of it! Ya'll hear about one or two cases that place a "bad" image on the whole concept without ever once researching ALL the jackpots that are claimed by groups that dont squabble. Sorry I'm too much a beleiver that there are more good acts of kindness and decency then the ones blown out of proportion by a news report.  No where in my groups by laws does it say, you cannot play outside the pool or any member of your family may not buy a ticket and win.!

I'd lay a dime to a dollar there is more to this story then the bias reporter is telling .  Therefore I wont conclude off the cuff that the guy is guilty. There are three sides to a story, his/theirs and the truth.

"kiss the proof concept goodbye. Some one will always accuse you of fudging the ticket"

Years back when I was still working I would travel over the state line to play power ball often some of my co-workers would ask me to pick up a ticket for them. I would always say NO as if I won how would you know that I did not use your ticket (all would ask just to get them a qp) They would say oh we trust you. I agree with chewie. I only trust myself and that's a questionable choice. All these suits makes it hard to get aboard the pool concept.

 TheGameGrl wrote:

<< I beg to differ against the folks who presume the ticket WASNT purchase by the wife. She could just have easily bought a series of tickets that day or a few days earlier. >>

It's certainly possible that the ticket was bought separately from the pool, whether by the wife or no. Based on what's in the article there are a lot of claims by the people suing, but not a lot of facts. One of the claims doesn't ring true, though. Why would it take a month for the store  to put up a sign or for the group to see the sign, and if the ticket hasn't been turned in yet, how would the store know who the winner was?

It would be helpful if either the reporter or the  lottery commission was smart enough to report how big the "block" of tickets that included the winner was. If it's clear that it was less than 55 tickets it would suggest that it wasn't part of the pool or else he was skimming money and not buying all the tickets. If it appears that it was 55 tickets he probably might as well save the legal fees and just give them the money.

As with other disputes over pool winnings, there's nothing about this story that says pools are inherently bad, but  these people obvioulsy didn't set it up at all well.

The pool purchaser always provide everyone in the pool a photo copy of the purchased tickets. They should be quick picks only. The ones YOU play should be manual pick only. Try to avoid being the pool purchaser if you can!

DON'T be like mike.......that man is greedy and cheated his friends.

If everyone in the pool is cooperative photocopies handed out ahead of time might prevent problems, but if there's a dispute they probably won't mean anything since the only thing they can conclusively prove is that tickets with those numbers were photcopied. Your fellow pool members might accept them as proof that you bought the right number of tickets, but if you also bought a significant winner that you claim doesn't belong to them there's nothing but their honesty to prevent them from simply throwing the photcopies away. Having everyone sign and return the copies might help, but without clear rules that define how tickets are bought people can still claim a different tickets should belong to the pool.

Buying quick picks means it will  be impossible to have a written agreement in advance that definitively identifies which tickets will belong to the pool. Unless there is a written agreement that spells out what numbers will be played there may not be any way to conclusively prove whether or not any given ticket does or doesn't rightfully belong to the pool. Specifying where the tickets are bought, and requiring that individual purchases be bought at a different location or be assumed to belong to the pool should be a requirement for any pool run by people with a lick of sense.

Are the remaining 10 still Pooling their Funds to buy MegaMillions Tickets?

When you google "Breakfast Buddy", it usually refer to an older group of citizens who not only share breakfast but are generous, trustworthy and a credit to their community. 

Ronald L. LeMaster, Raymond C. McLean, Kenneth B. Ulrich, Robert Holmes Jr., Steve E. Mrofchak, Joseph Celedonia, Donald C. Hoyle, Philip M. Sidoti, and Joseph M. Sidoti and Robert Cebula no longer believe that of Michael Salcone after the Ohio Lottery Commission confirmed that the ticket was part of a block of tickets — and it had not been bought separately as Salcone had told the group.

It was not clear if the winning ticket was part of the block of tickets bought for the pool. The Ohio Lottery Commission said the winning ticket had not yet been claimed and it must be claimed within 180 days after the drawing, or it will be forfeited.

Salcone no longer joins the others for breakfast, and showed up for the last time in early December.

I belong to a lottery pool and dern proud of it! Ya'll hear about one or two cases that place a "bad" image on the whole concept without ever once researching ALL the jackpots that are claimed by groups that dont squabble. Sorry I'm too much a beleiver that there are more good acts of kindness and decency then the ones blown out of proportion by a news report.  No where in my groups by laws does it say, you cannot play outside the pool or any member of your family may not buy a ticket and win.!

Gamegirl is right in some respects.  However, the trend of modern day morality is to get what you can from who ever you can.  In the '90's, people had a different attitude then they do in the '20's.  More and more lawsuits are being filed when large sums of money are involved.  Maybe it is because the amounts are larger, or it is because the parents no longer emphasize integrity over gains.  Look arond most office environments and you will be hard to find some one you would trust with a hand-shake thousand dollar loan.  Twenty years ago, you found lots of people you would trust, now you probably won't find any. You wused to work with the same people for years and you trusted them, now you work with them for a year or two and they are gone.

Everything now is based on perception, not on reality.  Be it sexual harrassement or buying a lottery ticket.  Guilty, no matter what the circumstances.  You buy two lottery tickets and give one to some one who asked to have one bought, and thats fine.  You buy for a group, and extra for yourself, and you are asking for trouble.  The same trouble you ask for when you close the office door and there is one female and one male in the room.  You are automatically guilty.  Declare you seperate tickets, and selfish of the world will still come after you.  Insecurity breeds insecurity.

This guy sounds like Dora Leal all over again!  It's a shame.