Need advicePrev TopicNext Topic

• Guest

  United States
  Member #0
  May 31, 2000
  0 Posts
  Offline
  Apr 10, 2002, 8:55 pm

  ▲▼

  A couple of coworkers are thinking of going in on tickets as a team. If one person's tickets win then all benefit. What kind of contract should we draw up? Presently no one has brought that up but I know it has been an issue in TX when some people got greedy. How does one decide who will receive/sign the winning ticket to redeem?
• Gamma Ray

  

  United States
  Member #180
  April 10, 2002
  62 Posts
  Offline
  Apr 10, 2002, 9:13 pm

  ▲▼

  Please note, I am not an attroney or lawyer. The following is just my personal opinion. It will help if dispute happens. It will be a good evidence for the court.
  
  If the no of players is not too much you guys can have all you names signed at the back of the ticket!
  
  Or you guys can draft a partnership agreement on betting. How is every partners dollar contribution (% $ contribution). And how is the distribution of the gain for every partner, by % $ invested.
  
  It will be great if there is an external third party be the observer, and keep the ticket or doucment. BUT NOT BOTH!!!
• Guest

  United States
  Member #0
  May 31, 2000
  0 Posts
  Offline
  Apr 10, 2002, 10:04 pm

  ▲▼

  The cash/annuity issue is of course more important when people share ticket(s). If TX still requires the choice be make when you play, _always_ choose LUMP SUM/CASH. If the choice is made AFTER you win, 1) either make sure the "contract" is for choosing LUMP SUM/CASH, or, should the pool want "annuity" (unlikely) that those preferring CASH are not in the pool (so that those wanting lump sum aren't stuck with annual payments).
• hosni

  

  100

  Escondido, CA
  United States
  Member #70
  December 31, 2001
  14,720 Posts
  Offline
  Apr 10, 2002, 10:11 pm

  ▲▼

  You need the Michael P. Burke book *WIN MILLION$$ PLAYING THE LOTTERY*. The book also includes How To Form a Lottery Club and Win Your Share of Million$.
  
  In the book he has all kinds of forms for Club membership and good advice. Mike's book may still be available from the Publisher, Kennesaw Mountain Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 440369m Kennesaw, GA 30144. Phone:   (404) 428-6632
  
         John in Escondido, CA

  Retired Grumman Aerospace Corporation F-14 Tomcat AVIONICS Field Engineer Extraordinaire
• lottoscorp

  United States
  Member #60
  October 28, 2001
  455 Posts
  Offline
  Apr 11, 2002, 11:58 am

  ▲▼

  Your problem is simple:
  
  After taxes are taken out!...Split everything evenly for
  each one who contributed to the pool.
• AmuzingP3s

  

  Texas
  United States
  Member #39
  December 10, 2001
  572 Posts
  Offline
  Oct 2, 2002, 12:26 pm

  ▲▼

  I once belonged to a small pool at work here in TX (4--same--people only) and we had a 5 of 6 win (when it was only 50 lottery numbers). It was about a $2700 prize.  By the way we missed the 6th numbe, and a $65,000,000 for one digit.  We would only play when the jackpot was over the minimum, $3,000 at that time. It was unanimously decided that I would pick the numbers, fill the cards, purchase the tickets, hold them,  cash and distribute the winnings, even if it was a small win.  Showed that they really trusted me, huh? I would give everyone a list of numbers to be purchased as well as a copy of the tickets after they were purchased.  Another person would help me proof the tickets to make sure all the numbers were correct. There were a couple of times that a number would be chosen incorrectly. Everyone will sign that they were aware of it and the new missing number would be purchased for an additional charge. The short agreement basically said that today (date) we (all the names) were participating in a Lottery Pool playing a total of 18 games costing $42, cost to be divided evenly among the members with each member paying $10.50; that all the minor prizes would be cashed and distributed evenly at all times and a new collection would take place before each game to be played. If a member was out of the office, we would then take his portion and divide the cost among the other 3. In a couple of instances (not too often) the opportunity was given to someone else, but it was specified in the contract that the regular member was not playing that day and someone else had taken his place. This new person will sign the contract for that time. It specified that if there was a major prize we would all go together to pick up the prize. We all said they would like to have legal advice from a lawyer of each one's choice if this happened.  We had a 5 of 5 win for about $2,700 or so. Not that big, but there was still a little bit of tax. We all went to pick up the money, but the Lottery did not allow us to split the winnings and would not issue individual checks.  They said they could only issue one check.  The voluntary collector of the winnings had to present ID and his social security number and received a check for the total amount. He then paid us in cash when he cashed the money that day.  After tax time, he told us that he received a tax bill from IRS for the whole amount. He had to write a letter signed by all of us specifying that the prize had been divided. That solved it.

  Maybe there were flaws in the way we were doing this, but it worked real well for us because we were co-workers who knew each other for many years and really trusted each other.

   Good Luck to All
• AmuzingP3s

  

  Texas
  United States
  Member #39
  December 10, 2001
  572 Posts
  Offline
  Oct 2, 2002, 12:34 pm

  ▲▼

  I meant to say above that we had a 5 of 6 win , not a 5 of 5. I was using Gail's Advantage Plus and wheels. We would choose new numbers each time we play because we were not playing every day and I thought the data changed in between.

   Good Luck to All
• CASH Only

  United States
  Member #379
  June 5, 2002
  11,294 Posts
  Offline
  Oct 2, 2002, 2:02 pm

  ▲▼

  Rose: If your pool had won a jackpot, I would have hated to hear of each of you having to receive annual payments. If you ever play in a pool again, you should make sure the pool is for CASH/LUMP SUM unless there is a unanimous vote for the annuity (of course, someone wanting lump sum shouldn't be in an annuity-only pool).
• Bryan

  

  Mid-Missouri
  United States
  Member #644
  August 31, 2002
  4,271 Posts
  Offline
  Oct 2, 2002, 5:45 pm

  ▲▼

  Howdy Guess,

  I have been the ticket holder for several groups of lottery players. (Doing one now as a matter of fact) Just for my protection and the protection of the other players. We always bought the tickets at least a day ahead so we could make copies for everyone in the group so no one had to guess if we won or not.

  Also, I played my own numbers. So, to combat the possibility of switching tickets. I bought the group's tickets at a certain store and my personal tickets at a different store. (each store has it's own id number on the ticket) If the ticket purchased was from the agreed upon store then it was the groups ticket (if it was ever disputed). If purchased from the other store it was my personal ticket. Everyone knew this up front.

  You can write up an agreement (who gets it and how much) and have everyone involved sign it and drop it into a safety deposit box at the bank and all members must be present to get the document out of the bank. (bar any deaths and the likes) I personally never took it this far but it depends on how serious you want to get.

  It can actually become quite a headache.....

   For instance, What if you bought tickets and you won $35 dollars and a player drops out. (we always played a set amount of tickets, everyone paid $2 dollars, $100 total. We always dropped the small winnings back into the next drawing.) Do you keep the $35 dollars separate from the rest of the tickets bought for the next round? What If you hit the big one with the $35 from the last pot, does the dropped out player (who didn't give any money last time) get part of the jackpot? It gets even hairier. What if the $35 only wins 10$ dollars the next time and the $10 finally hits the jackpot and the dropped out player hasn't paid for 3 rounds does he still get a cut of the jackpot? At some point you can actually be keeping track of 3 or more groups of money. See what I mean..... headache!!! You have to consider things like this because if you hit it big you can bet the dropped out player will suing you big time!!

  It is kinda of a mute point though, in all cases (that I have heard of) that have went to court, the ticket holder is the sole recipient of all winnings.)

  Sorry so longwinded...Just some things you may want to consider before taking the plunge.

  Good Luck!,

  Bryan  :)
• Teufellj

  United States
  Member #89
  January 18, 2002
  2,092 Posts
  Offline
  Oct 2, 2002, 7:32 pm

  ▲▼

  Hello there Guest,

  My two cents worth is this...if there are only two of you then a notorized copy of intent is satisfactory, containing what you will do; how you will do it; and who gets what amount, etc. Any more than two people then I would suggest an iron clad, big bucks contract with the same information. With three or more people and a big win, things and friendship tend to get a little sticky.

   

      Teufellj
• AmuzingP3s

  

  Texas
  United States
  Member #39
  December 10, 2001
  572 Posts
  Offline
  Oct 3, 2002, 1:36 pm

  ▲▼

  CashOnly--at the time we had the pool, in mid 90's there was no Cash Option in TX, but it would be important to consider it now that it is available.

   Good Luck to All
• CASH Only

  United States
  Member #379
  June 5, 2002
  11,294 Posts
  Offline
  Oct 3, 2002, 2:29 pm

  ▲▼

  Rose: Assuming you would prefer LUMP SUM, and you want to be part of a lottery pool, you better make sure the pool agrees to the cash payoff. TX needs to adopt the 1998 federal guidelines (which should have been made mandatory) allowing players to make the cash/annuity choice _after_ they win (NY hasn't gone along either).