The Finance Blogger

Most of us have heard about a group of people getting together, picking their favorite lottery numbers and then registering as a group to try to win the big one. The ones we hear a lot about are those that did not document who was a member of the group. They did not have a set of guidelines that were understood by the group. Invariably what happens is that there is someone who feels they were unjustly left out of the winnings and that is where the lawsuits start. Some people are just after the money and have no business in trying to take a share of the cash either.

Problems with Money

Whenever there is a lot of money involved, that is when the greed comes out and people either try to keep others from getting their fair share or they are trying to get what they think is there share. When you read about these stories you just have to shake your head and wonder how did they let them get themselves into this predicament?

Well it turns out that the lottery corporations publish guidelines for people in a group to follow and guidelines if you happen to be the administrator of the group. We are going to republish them here and perhaps make a comment or two as well based on our own personal experience. These are good lottery group play guidelines to follow and hopefully since they come from one of the big lotto groups, they are based on their experience.

Lottery Group Play Guidelines

Here they are:

Before the Draw

• Choose one person to act as the group play captain, to coordinate group numbers, collect payments and validate tickets.
• Create a list of play group members for each draw. Use a lottery group play form available at most lottery retailers or online from your lottery.
• Clearly state the jackpot amount, draw date, cost per play and cut off time for payment.
• Agree on and document what will happen if someone is not able to pay before a draw.

After the Draw

• Sign the winning ticket immediately. Write “in Trust” by the signature line to show that this ticket is a group play ticket.
• Distribute copies or computer scans of the ticket to each group member.
• Check the ticket after the draw
• If you have won the lottery, check the signed ticket at an authorized retailer. Or call your lottery for more information on the next steps.

Discussion about Lottery Group Play Guidelines

This is really about trust of your captain or organizer for your lottery group play. Also trust of the individuals who are in your group. As well as those who may be in the group or feel that they are, although they do not pay every week.

If you are having issues with payment, and win a big lottery win, there is a possibility of ending up in court. Either the person who did not pay that week is going to sue for his or her share of the lottery win. Or those people who did pay are going to object to the non payer participating in this win. Then there are the people who  will say, if someone would have asked me, I would have paid. They want their share. This sort of thing really happens. The best way around this is to make sure everything is well documented.

We are going to write a couple more posts on this subject over the next few months. Your comments are welcome and appreciated. Especially if they help our readers avoid having significant issues with their group play.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.