Team up to win lottery, but who’s in should be clearly spelled out
Let’s be perfectly serious about that joint venture with coworkers, friends or relatives to win Tuesday’s record $1.6 billion Mega Millions jackpot: Your chances of winning are about as nil as nil can be.
But just in case (since somebody, somewhere is going to overcome the 1-in-302.6 million odds sometime) let’s be even more serious: Put a description of the group’s effort in writing before the drawing and circulate it for everyone’s endorsement.
That’s the advice of Seth Oranburg, a Duquesne University assistant professor of law, who is mindful of Pennsylvania’s Snyder v. Gravell court case involving a 1992 $9.8 million Lotto prize. Four colleagues at a Monroe County high school fought over the money after one of them, David Gravell, said he purchased the winning ticket separately from an office pool agreement they had to share winnings.
A trial judge and the Pennsylvania Superior Court backed Mr. Gravell’s right to keep the entire jackpot because
insufficient records existed to indicate he was required to share proceeds from the particular ticket he purchased.
Legal disputes in other states have surrounded even bigger jackpots from the Powerball and Mega Millions drawings. Now that Tuesday’s prize will clearly be the biggest in U.S. history, it only stands to reason that more groups than ever of office workers or other acquaintances could unintentionally open themselves up to unforeseen court battles.
Maybe participating in a legal fight over hundreds of millions of dollars isn’t your worst nightmare, but then again, why not avoid the potential snag?
“Putting things into writing is less fun, but that’s the point — it shows that people took it seriously,” Mr. Oranburg advised.
He suggested simply putting a succinct agreement on one page of paper, or circulating it by email, to specify who’s involved, the amount everyone contributed and the percentage of any winnings they will receive.
“Ideally, it’s printed out on a piece of paper for everyone’s signature, but that’s in a perfect world,” Mr. Oranburg said.
Beth Mellon of Bellevue is the collector of money and purchaser of tickets among staffers at her Downtown workplace — a nonprofit organization she declined to name. She didn’t seem worried about such legal matters for six individuals putting in $5 each.
“I think we’re all fairly trusting of each other,” she said in C&C News & Snax in PPG Place, which had a Monday afternoon stream — far from an avalanche, which might be more likely Tuesday — of customers buying tickets for both the Mega Millions and Wednesday’s $620 million Powerball drawing.
A group of 83 Navy veterans who served on the USS Rankin warship decades ago take their effort to become rich more seriously. They have been part of a collective pool for big prize jackpots since 2007, with written bylaws and communication shared in writing across the country concerning details from the drawings they enter.
“All 83 people know the contact numbers of all the other members and we know the numbers we play,” said Lou Sander of Ross, president of the USS Rankin Lottery Pool, which he said has yet to win a big prize.
But in the event their fortunes change Tuesday, “If I were to abscond with the money, there would be 83 people after me,” Mr. Sander said. “Sometimes I sweat beads because I hope I don’t forget to buy the tickets.”
Mark Stewart, a Harrisburg lawyer who represents casinos and other gaming industry clients for the Eckert Seamans firm, said it is conceivable that if nothing’s in writing, people can suggest all kinds of ways they were unfairly cut out of the winnings.
“Somebody can claim, ‘My friend said he would put in $2 for me, and then he didn’t,’” Mr. Stewart related. “Any time you get money and people together, there’s always a chance there’s going to be fighting about it. It does make sense to give these issues some thought . ... Usually it’s worked out through common sense and the relationships people have with each other.”
He said it’s helpful if there is one trustworthy point person for such groups — someone who collects the money, keeps the records, protects the tickets, lets others know about the number combinations.
“Those kinds of things are just common sense and good communication,” said Mr. Stewart, himself wary of directing people to put every detail in writing, “because it would be evidence of why people don’t like lawyers.”
The Mega Millions is played twice a week in 44 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but no one has claimed its top prize since a group of 11 California co-workers shared a $543 million jackpot on July 24. To win that prize, you must have numbers that match five white-colored balls bearing numbers between 1 and 70 and a separate gold ball numbered 1 through 25.
Pennsylvanians have until 9:59 p.m. to enter Tuesday’s drawing.