Office Pool Lotto Questions

Reply #20

davidtn — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:49:55 GMT

Thanks so much Joey. You can email it to me at davidtn at usa dot net

David

Reply #19

Texas Joey — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:46:25 GMT

you can get a Lottery Pool Packet from Lottery Player's M.A.G.A.Z.I.N.E It has all the rules for starting a pool or e-mail me and I will send it to you.

Reply #18

river1 — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 02:16:51 GMT

i've run a pool for over 12 years. i used to just ask different people to join when the jackpot gets big, but that was a headache. now i have a group that has been essentially the same for those 12 years, the only way to get in is for me to trust you to pay your share. i cover them when they are on vacation/sick/ or just short this week. only one fella has left the group owing me money but the rest of the group covered that. we play 5 bucks a draw when the powerball gets big enough, quick picks... [ More ]

Reply #17

jr-va — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:30:32 GMT

make an appointment and check with your district attorney first, is what I would do

Reply #16

PrisonerSix — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:18:08 GMT

It definitely is alot of work. The multidraw tickets cut down on the work a little, but it still is work. LIke you, I have to float people too sometimes. I've worked with these people for a long time so I know they are good for it and they always pay me. If I float someone, it is usually only for one play. Sometimes other players cover for each other, which is good. I work with a great bunch of people I wouldn't give up for anything.

A couple of members had numbers they wanted to play, so... [ More ]

Reply #15

Rainmaker101 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:54:18 GMT

I run an office pool, too. It's alot of work, but I know the big one is coming. We have not set up an agreement...might be wise to...but we've all worked together for years. Seems kinda simple, though. When we win big, we close the store for a day or two, we rent a charter bus full of libations and food, take the 6 hour trip to the Lottery HQ and stake our claim and divide by 10! I do have an LLC on standby, should that be necessary.

It does get troublesome when a regular asks me to float th... [ More ]

Reply #14

KY Floyd — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:07:24 GMT

Are you serious? I'll assume you don't think that everybody who runs a business paysincome tax on every penny of gross income, and that when they filetheir tax return they don't have to write a letter to convince the IRSthat some of that gross income was spent on business expenses and shouldn't betaxed as income. Maybe you even have income from a business and have discovered that it's not a gift, and you pay income tax, rather than the business paying a gift tax? Maybe, just maybe, the IRS has b... [ More ]

Reply #13

PrisonerSix — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:44:30 GMT

That is very interesting. I know states will allow a pool to claim and issue separate checks, but I didn't know about that. My state will only pay to one person, but using the IRS forms I mentioned in a previous post, they will split up the tax liability and issue W-2G forms to multiple people for a single jackpot.

Reply #12

savagegoose — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:12:52 GMT

where i live they actually have a split purchase of tickets, so if a pool buys say 5 shares it prints out a coupon worth 1/5th of the prizes, and costing 1/5th. a coupon can be handed to ea member. and your pool manager job is done.

Reply #11

PrisonerSix — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:03:52 GMT

I've been running a pool in my office for a few years now and I can give you some advice.

We buy a mix of Powerball and Lotto tickets with the numbers being a combination of quick picks and members' picks. This gives a pretty good mix of numbers in my opinion.

Payday in our office is every 2 weeks, and that is when I collect the money. I charge $4/payday to each member, and I buy multidraw tickets to cover the 4 drawings that will occur over the next 2 weeks. That makes things easier... [ More ]

Reply #10

Guru101 — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 07:58:59 GMT

Plus, even if the administrator could distribute each member his/her share of the jackpot, how is it signified to the IRS that these are not gifts? Does the administrator write a letter to the IRS saying I'm sending millions of dollars to each of these people. These people are legally entitled to the amount I send them. Do not gift tax me , or what

Reply #9

Jack-C — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:39:41 GMT

The IRS cares about social security numbers. When the state writes the check it reports that amount to the IRS, one SSN per check.

The person that receives THE check is responsible for the income tax on that amount. That's why the State of California will pay checks to each member of a pool rather than just the administrator .

Reply #8

KY Floyd — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:31:25 GMT

The IRS doesn't care whether the lottery writes the checks to the members or the pool administrator writes the checks. Each member is entitled only to their share, and that's what each member pay taxes on.

Reply #7

Jack-C — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:06:34 GMT

KY Floyd said:

FWIW, your state's rules don't really matter in the decison about some players having multiple shares. The pool can take a single check and then distribute the money. Letting somebody play multiple shares will reduce your share, but it increases your chances.

The single check does not work. Not unless you are willing to pay income taxes on the FULL amount of the jackpot.

Reply #6

KY Floyd — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:15:04 GMT

There are good reasons to avoid pools, but fear of a lawsuit isn't one of them. If you do get sued, congratulations. You'll almost certainly never be sued unless you win a sizable amount. That means you're a winner. Other than never winning, you can't do anything to guarantee that you won't be sued, but you can make it unlikely and you can make it a virtual certainty that you won't lose. There are really only two issues to be concerned about. One is who is a member of the pool, and the other is... [ More ]

Reply #5

Jack-C — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:49:01 GMT

The problem with members buying tickets themselves or picking their own numbers is what has happened before. If that person's number is the winning number for millions of dollars ... you can guess what happens. Strictly quick picks are the only way to go.

Reply #4

Kidzmom — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:44:52 GMT

Hello Davidtn,

I had a office pool going for about a year but had to stop it because people did not want to pay but still wanted to win, so I gave them all discharge letters and had them to sign and date a form that said that they had officially ended their ties with my pool. I am going to be starting up a new one with a better staff and less people.

**Each member can pick their own numbers or have QP's if they want or just do half and half

**Each member had to contribute the same dolla... [ More ]

Reply #3

Jack-C — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:33:11 GMT

Check with your state to see what needs to be done. California used to have (probably still does) a special package for lotto pools. They will pay multiple checks up to a certain number, but they need to be the same amount to each person. That means you could not, at least in California, let people have different share amounts. This may have changed over the years, but check with your state. Quick picks, by the way are best and make sure that they names of each person are on the list that you co... [ More ]

Reply #2

davidtn — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:21:47 GMT

Thanks so much for your suggestions. I'll be curious if there are any more helpful suggestions such as yours.

Reply #1

Guru101 — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:17:44 GMT

Get quick picks and have each person in the pool put in the same amount of money($1 per person, $2 per person, etc).

Make sure there is something in the contract that takes care of a situation like this:

https://www.lotterypost.com/news/186331

In other words, specify in the contract that pools are considered on a drawing-by-drawing basis, and that only people who put in money for a given drawing are entitled to a share of that drawing; which the Piqua lottery winners failed to do. You c... [ More ]

Office Pool Lotto Questions

davidtn — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:33:16 GMT

I'm a fairly bright fellow, but new to the Office Pool Lotto concept. I know several board members have said they'd never play in an office pool for fear of lawsuit, etc. etc. However, I've made the decision to put one together (we just had a million dollar winner in our small hometown) so I'm not asking whether I should do it or not.

To those of you who are much more knowledgeable I pose these questions:

Do you let each member pick their own numbers or do you just have the lotto computer... [ More ]