If you’re a regular lottery player, then you might already know that the only guaranteed way to improve your odds of winning big is to buy more tickets. Unfortunately, this winning method can quickly become expensive. That’s why the best way to buy more tickets is to pool your resources with friends and family so that you can buy more tickets while keeping costs down. In this how to guide to office lottery pools, we’ll explain how you can introduce a lottery pool at your office while keeping things fun and free of unnecessary conflict.
What Is a Lottery Pool?
A lottery pool is a simple concept. It is a group of people that buy lottery tickets together in order to improve their odds of winning lotto prizes. In a lottery pool, each individual player pays a certain share of the cost of multiple tickets, and any prizes that come from those tickets are split evenly based on the share the individual contributes.
Lottery pools can be formed between friends, family, co-workers, and even strangers (so long as you play through an organisation like an online lottery website that keeps track of players and purchases). When lottery pools are made up of strangers, the pool is typically called a syndicate. A lottery office pool is simply a lottery pool that is created in a workplace.
Are Office Lottery Pools a Good Idea?
Office lottery pools are a great idea for co-workers who want to improve their odds of winning the jackpot while keeping costs low. Though an office pool is a simple enough concept, there are unfortunately many ways in which pools have gone wrong in the past. Many office lottery pools are informal, made up of employees who all trust one another. Too often, this trust between members turns sour when there is a substantial amount of money involved—particularly big jackpot wins.
There are numerous examples of lottery office pools that buy the winning ticket and then end up in court, with one or more members getting greedy and not wanting to share the prize for one reason or another. Reports show that lottery office pool members in the U.S. have gone to court for as little as $175,000.
Oftentimes, the conflict arises when the person in charge of buying tickets claims that the winning ticket was not purchased on behalf of the pool, but was instead a personal ticket. In other instances, employees who didn’t buy into the pool were absent on the day tickets were purchased or had fallen behind on payments have sued members for a share of the winnings. There is no end to the lengths some people will go to when there is a lot of money on the line, and that greed doesn’t go away just because a person has made an informal agreement with co-workers.
How to Run a Lottery Office Pool
Though you may think a big dispute or conflict could never arise between you and your co-workers in your pool, we’re pretty certain that every other office lottery pool that ended up in court felt that same way. That’s why it’s important to cover your bases and follow these easy steps to ensure you and your pool members have fun and play fairly:
Agree on ground rules. When starting your office lottery pool, sit down and write out the basic rules of membership. Will you be lax with payments, or do members miss out if they don’t pay their share up front? How can members leave the pool and new members join? How will wins—big and small—be distributed? These are just some questions you will need to answer when writing up your rules. We recommend keeping it as simple as possible, which includes fixing the buy-in amount and having a payment deadline.
Assign a leader. Once you have decided on your rules of membership, you should assign a leader who is responsible for enforcing the rules, collecting the money, purchasing the tickets, and splitting the winnings. The leader should be a highly organised individual who is ready to put in the time to ensure things run smoothly.
Photocopy tickets. Every ticket purchased on behalf of the lottery office pool should be photocopied and given to each member. This helps keep the leader accountable and allows every member to see whether or not the ticket is a winner. When everyone receives a copy of the ticket, the leader won’t be able to claim the winning ticket was a private purchase, or worse, pretend that the ticket didn’t win at all (both of these have happened in the past).
Keep members informed. The pool leader should set up a group chat or email list to keep everyone informed of when tickets are purchased and who has paid. This is another way to protect the leader and ensure everyone is on the same page and adhering to the agreed upon rules of membership.
Don’t use cash. Using an electronic method of payment such as direct e-transfers, PayPal, and Venmo can help keep track of who has paid and will allow the leader to have a record of when ticket purchases were made—which are best paid for using debit or a designated credit card. If it isn’t possible to go cashless, make sure the leader is keeping track one way or another of who has paid.
Get legal advice. While you might think that the chances of winning are so low that there is no point in thinking about what would happen if you actually won the jackpot, it is better to prepare for all eventualities. Consult an attorney familiar with your local lotto regulations and laws to see if there are any other guidelines you should follow.
Sign a contract. Once you have decided on your rules of operation, have all members sign a contract that lays out how the pool will function and what the plan is should your lottery office pool win big. If new members are allowed to join, make sure they also sign a copy of the contract.
Consider using a lottery pool app: Nowadays there are a number of different lottery pool apps available on both iOS and Android platforms that simplify most, if not all, of the above steps. Jackpocket is an outstanding multipurpose lottery app that allows players to join public pools or make their own private ones, while Lottery Pools is a solid one for Android that focuses specifically on lottery pools. And if you’re in Canada, PoolApp is an excellent choice as well.
Set up a trust if you win. If you win, the best way to claim your winnings is by setting up a lottery trust. A trust will act as an intermediary that claims the winnings on your lottery pool’s behalf and distributes them evenly without any issues or conflicts.
Conclusion
Office lottery pools are a great way to add some excitement to the workplace. However, there are many unexpected conflicts that can arise when a big prize is on the line. While you might be friends with your co-workers and trust them to be fair and honest, it is always better to be safe than sorry by following our tips and advice on how to set up and run your own office lottery pool. If you do, you might just be lucky enough to share a massive prize like these workplace lottery pool winners did.
That being said, if you want to avoid all of the drama and work involved in setting up, running, or being part of a workplace lotto pool, check out these online lottery syndicates. Not only do they automate the entire process and take care of all the details, but some also buy hundreds of lines for each draw, thus greatly boosting your chances of winning.
