Lottery flub pays off: Michigan co-workers win $1M

Comment #39

Tucker Black — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 03:31:28 GMT

You're right, I meant 50 lines (or sets of numbers).

While it's true that the probability of one QP matches one of the lottery pool tickets is low, so is the chance of winning. In fact they are exactly the same.

The probability of just two QP matching one of the lottery pool tickets (50 in 150 million) is double the chance of the pool winning (50 in 300 million).

Comment #38

Stack47 — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 03:12:17 GMT

I'm assuming by numbers you mean lines because 50 lines have 250 numbers which doesn't leave very many numbers to play. With 300 million possible outcomes the odds against buying a QP matching one of those lines extremely high and that line matching the jackpot winning numbers is astronomical high.

Jury trials are why weekly lottery pools can be legally dangerous especially when players quit or don't pay. Uncomplicated one time pools are the best bet.

Comment #37

Stack47 — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 02:23:31 GMT

The average was $5 per player in this group and their employer matched the total. Because she bought all MM tickets instead of half PB tickets show they weren't all on the same page. But it could be worse had she bought jackpot only tickets and they matched five on one of those tickets.

Comment #36

Artist77 — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 01:44:15 GMT

It is crystal clear when there is a time noted on the pool tickets, everyone receives a copy of the tickets, and you purchase your own hours or days later. My office uses a sign in sheet and everyone who plays contributes the same amount. No one can put money in for anyone else, or buy more than an equal share, etc. They even consult with me on it even though I don't participate. The issue is not whether you may be sued but whether your actions are legally defensible.

Comment #35

Tucker Black — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 01:20:50 GMT

If the pool is defined as a list of numbers to be played, then it's crystal clear whether or not the pool won. When you hand someone a bunch of OPM and say go buy quickpicks you invite legal trouble.

Decent people don't file a lawsuit joining a pool after the fact, or claiming it was just their own personal ticket, etc., but sadly the moral compass can get smashed to bits when millions of dollars are available for the taking.

Comment #34

CDanaT — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 14:09:51 GMT

restricted to certain numbers ??? interesting POV

I am more along the lines of freedom of choice type of person. Bring your ticket in and you are part of the pool. You don't, then you are not in.

Comment #33

Artist77 — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 12:30:12 GMT

Lol lol Great clip.

Comment #32

TheMeatman2005 — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 05:12:13 GMT

That kinda sounds like what I said.

Comment #31

Artist77 — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 20:35:31 GMT

That is not legally sound to bar anyone from playing certain numbers. We have an attorney in my office (and no, it is not me since I pass on pools) who runs a small pool when the jackpots are large and she simply makes a copy of all the tickets she bought and everyone gets a copy. If she wants to buy tickets on her own, she has to buy them in a separate trip.

Comment #30

Tucker Black — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 20:20:13 GMT

I thought of a way to solve this problem: have a lottery pool contract which states which numbers the pool is playing. The numbers NEVER change.

Say there are 50 players. The contract should state the following 50 numbers shall be played:

ticket #1 27 42 44 48 54 PB 23

ticket #2 11 17 35 58 64 PB 9

ticket #3 5 7 21 26 47 PB 22

...

ticket #50 11 25 27 50 52 PB 6

Then if the person who buys the lottery tickets wants to play on his own, fine, but UNDER CONTRACT, you MUST p... [ More ]

Comment #29

TheMeatman2005 — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 18:28:07 GMT

And

Comment #28

oate — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 07:09:29 GMT

Maybe you don't understand the word and.

Comment #27

KY Floyd — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 07:04:29 GMT

This is why lottery pools are such a terrible idea. When someone wins, the greed factor explodes

Yeah, you can see very clearly how that happened here by the way the people who contributed more shared the prize equally with those who contributed less.

To avoid this mix up if you are the designated lottery ticket purchaser in a pool,buy all the pools tickets at one location.

If people are smart enough to have a written agreement it should be a no brainer to have a designated place to

Comment #26

oate — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 05:13:36 GMT

the people in the pool wouldn't expect you to share with them since they were your personal tickets.

Tell that the ambulance chaser your lottery pool just hired.

Comment #25

TheMeatman2005 — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 04:31:57 GMT

I wonder if this is how I will act when I win....

Comment #24

TheMeatman2005 — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 04:15:23 GMT

It's very simple oate.

Let's say you join a pool at work. There are 50 people in the pool and everyone contributes $2.

That's 50 tickets. If one of them wins, you get 1/50th of the winnings.

You weren't going to buy 50 tickets on your own, maybe just 5 at a cost of $10.

For $12, you have 55 chances of winning instead of just the 5 you were going to buy anyway.

You can also look at it this way...You aren't the organizer of the pool and just put up your $2 like everyone else and th... [ More ]

Comment #23

oate — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 00:22:02 GMT

Maybe they like living on the edge. The thrill they get from risking a nasty lawsuit is an outgrowth of the thrill they get playing lotto.

Comment #22

noise-gate — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 00:16:09 GMT

Perhaps these people thinking is l can kill two birds with one stone. Whatever the reason, it can be viewed as entering treacherous waters.You know that if you in a pool playing on the side, and you win, there is bound to be problems. No amount of explaining how you won is going to be good enough.l view pools as a leper colony.

Comment #21

oate — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 00:05:25 GMT

I don't really understand the mentality of someone who would play in an office pool and individually on the side for the same drawing. Such a person would be better off not joining their office pool in the first place and using the money saved to buy more tickets for their own lottery habit.

Comment #20

noise-gate — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 23:08:03 GMT

l think you right. Your post got me thinking. To avoid this mix up if you are the designated lottery ticket purchaser in a pool,buy all the pools tickets at one location. When you good and done with that. Cross the street if you have to and buy your own batch at another location. If push come to shove from the pool if you win, hire an attorney on the cheap and instruct him to say the following. 60 tickets for the pool were bought at Sandy's bakery- that's the total amount, not a ticket more, not... [ More ]

Comment #19

Elizabeth03 — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 21:42:02 GMT

Very lucky for all of them

Comment #18

Tucker Black — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 20:58:09 GMT

This is why lottery pools are such a terrible idea. When someone wins, the greed factor explodes, and you have to fight back against parasites.

Comment #17

TheMeatman2005 — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 17:29:38 GMT

That's the story CD!

The only way he could prove that he bought his tickets separately from the group's tickets would be if the ticket numbers were not from that sequence.

The backs of the tickets have numbers printed on them. If those were not in the group of tickets purchased for the group, then I would conclude he purchased them on his own and were not part of the group's tickets.

I guess he couldn't prove that, so he had to pay up.

Comment #16

CDanaT — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 15:14:12 GMT

I remember that one.. wasn't that back around 2012 ish ?.. Guess I could go look,but I am being a sluggapotomus today.

Or was it this one ?

https://www.lotterypost.com/news/243644

Comment #15

noise-gate — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 14:31:48 GMT

.. that's hilarious TMM.

Kinda reminds me of a lottery story l read here about a guy from NY or NJ who was head of this pool. When they won, he claimed that he bought the winning ticket separately from the group. The others took him to court won years later. I want to say the guy's name was Americo..could be wrong, but there.

Comment #14

noise-gate — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 14:22:41 GMT

Exactly Stack. It's like the old saying it's all fun and games, until someone loses an eye. Meaning to me,l will play along, until we hit a major jackpot then we can turn around and look at the room. Oh Jack, who is married, threw in $2.00. But Peter, the bachelor, threw in $10.. you know where l am going with this..

Comment #13

TheMeatman2005 — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 10:11:23 GMT

Where I used to work, we did a pool when the jackpots got high. One guy used to put in twice the amount. He said it was for his son. We stopped that quickly and said If we win, you can give him a share of your money

Comment #12

Stack47 — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 05:02:09 GMT

The lottery club's spokesman says although each member contributed varying amounts, they all agreed to divvy up the winnings evenly, which will amount to about $47,600 each before taxes.

That could have disastrous had those contributing more demanded a pari-mutual payoff.

Comment #11

noise-gate — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 03:26:23 GMT

.. But too many people in this pool. A week or two ago, our walking wounded lottery player, found himself in a pool of well over 100 persons. As Rocket in Infinity War, after hearing of Thor's new weapon' s name said That's a bit much

Comment #10

sweetie7398 — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 02:30:33 GMT

Congratulations

Comment #9

grwurston — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 23:28:49 GMT

Always keep your mistake tickets, or even take someone else's when the store has them.

Ya never know...

Congrats to them all

Comment #8

Cassie8620 — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 21:33:20 GMT

I just double-look at that when you're mentioning it meatman,yep. wow.

i personally won many pick 3's today(same number)so i can just imagine how happy the people in this picture-story is feelin' right about now.

this is great. i can just imagine all the happiness they feel.

this is awesome, as a bunch they all won great job, and shout out to BRICK's or Bricky's, they get a nice pay day too.

Way to go! I see all diff people in this happy pix, and i know they are going... [ More ]

Comment #7

music* — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 18:58:27 GMT

So close yet so far away. Congratulations never the less.

Great advertising for the Company.

Comment #6

oate — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 17:35:34 GMT

Yes, because buying multiple tickets for a single drawing gives you a mathematical advantage over spreading out your money for several different drawings. She must be the smart one in the group.

Comment #5

cbr$ — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 16:06:28 GMT

Congratulation to all the winners. I don't believe any one is going to be upset about the other set of tickets she was going to purchase in Powerball tickets. Nice story.

Comment #4

TheMeatman2005 — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 15:49:27 GMT

If you look at the ticket, 2 lines had the 5 as Mega Number. They had 15 as their Mega Number.

Comment #3

CDanaT — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 14:04:49 GMT

scratching head I am wondering if she should be put in charge of buying the tickets again for the group or not

Comment #2

Bleudog101 — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 13:49:14 GMT

Congratulations!!

On a side note my rant about stopping MP and or PP lasted only one draw! The MP for that drawing was 3, so they did lose a bit...but so what? Won a lot more than here

Comment #1

Raven62 — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 13:32:03 GMT

Congrats to All the Winners!

Time and Again Tickets Purchased in Error Turn Out to be Winners

Lottery flub pays off: Michigan co-workers win $1M

Lottery Post — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 13:21:51 GMT

A Mega Millions mistake by an office employee is paying off for her and 20 of her Ottawa County coworkers.

The Michigan Lottery says the Bus Busters lottery club won $1 million during the historic Mega Millions drawing on Oct. 23.

All 21 winners work for SoundOff Commercial Vehicle Solutions in Hudsonville.

The lottery club's representative said they pooled their money for lottery tickets, with their boss matching the amount for a total of $212. However, the woman who volunteered to bu... [ More ]