sneaky!!  

well, if the burden is all on you in collecting, buying, copying and distributing, they can't all be too interested, eh?

It's called stealing if you didn't put your money in to the pool and then played their numbers and won taking half of their winnings.

My wife plays in an office pool for the mega millions when it gets over 100 mil.  She brings home a copy of the tickets before the drawing, I would never think of going out and playing the same numbers for myself and cheating all her friends if they won, when not putting in to the office pool.  It's just not right, but that's just me.

Don

As he won on a Quick Pick he bought, not part of a pool, he shouldn't give any of his win to anyone else. However, I don't understand why he decided to go public. In the UK winners can remain anonymous. He will learn the hard way that, discretion is the better part of valour.

Floyd, the better question is, why on earth would anyone (knowingly) play the SAME numbers as somebody else ?    Does this clown know if he wins - they win - and they split it ?   What a tool.

The question is, if THEY won, would they share with you ?     Highly doubtful.

'stealing' ???    How do you figure ??      He's not 'stealing'.    Being stupid = yes, but 'stealing' ?    No.       

Whoever in the pool that is giving someone else the numbers so they can play them - THAT is the idiot in the group, they should know they have nothing to gain by feeding the guy the numbers, that they are giving away half the winnings IF they hit it.

And yes, most wins are done with 5 games or less because that is how most games are played.

It would only be sneaky if i played the numbers we played.  I play my own numbers that I "feel" or do a quick pick.

Well guess what? When I told them if this happens again next month I am out.  All of a sudden everyone paid up.  Its only $8/month per person on average depending on the weeks of the month.

If the person tried to claim a share of the pool's winnings without having contributed to the ticket purchase there wouldn't be any question that they were trying to steal a share. How is it different when they take several shares by taking the numbers the pool was using? Sure, nobody has an exclusive right to the numbers, but we're not talking about playing the same numbers as a result of random coincidence or using some system that produced the same result. We're talking about deliberately using the same numbers beause they knew the pool was using them, with no apparent reason to think those numbers were especialy likely to win. It seems pretty clear that the motivation had to do with messing with the group. A tool, indeed.

As far as being stupid, it's not stupid if you had a reason to believe that the numbers were actually likely to win. It is stupid to pick numbers with no reason to think they're especially likely to win but they're certain to reduce a jackpot by at least 50%. Considering that plenty of people here are worried that they might be bothered by random strangers if they won a jackpot I'd suggest it's also stupid because the pool that lost millions of dollars might be a bit annoyed. Elsewhere, the poster who played the pool's numbers says they'd sue the lottery to remain anonymous becusae of fears about the actions of random strangers.

You might find something here which could be useful to you.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=%22introduction+to+ethics%22&btnG=Search

You can lead a horse's ass to water, but you can't make it think.

Lotto pools aren't a bad deal.  You just have to be careful to put the rules in writing.  I'm running two pools right now. and they each had buy-in deadlines and payment was required in ADVANCE of buying any tickets.  There is no "I'll pay you when I get back from vacation" or "Can you cover me until I have the money."

My rules clearly state that we share only on the numbers provided to the pool, which must be done before the drawing.  In the first organized pool I started, they laughed at me when they saw the rules.  That's when I told them to check out this site and read about all the pool lawsuits.  Some of them  still think I'm a bit anal about it but we all buy tickets on our own and/or in other pools, making the rules necessary.

When you buy in you have to sign the buy-in receipt which contains the rules.  Also, each pool has an ending date determined in part by the number of players in the pool.   All official communication is done by email and if a new pool begins with basically the same members, an email is sent detailing who is joining, leaving, and staying.

I'm not one of those people who will spend $5 on one drawing so being in pools helps me have more chances to win, even if the amount has to be spread among several people.

Would I prefer to win on my own ticket - yes.  Would I be happy with a pool win - yes.  Would I ever play the pool's numbers on my own ticket for the same drawing - no.

As someone mentioned before, why would a member of the pool give their numbers out to someone else anyway?