How to avoid sharks in office lottery pool. The Lotto Max winners cannot claim their prize

[silverpiratetears]

If you want to guard against office pool lottery squabbles, make sure there's a pre-nup.
“I've seen it with pools and I've seen it with spouses — outright fights even coming to blows. Money sometimes does that to people,” says H. Roy Kaplan, who has interviewed and written about North American lottery winners.

It's not uncommon for friends and relatives of winners to dispute who should be getting paid, added Kaplan, a sociologist at the University of South Florida. The problem is that “everything is always so informal” when it comes to office pools, Kaplan explains. He suggests drafting a written agreement signed by all participants. “It's a little like a pre-nuptial. A pre-nuptial lottery agreement,” he said.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. says it can't put a timeline on when it will conclude its investigation into all claims for the $50 million Lotto Max jackpot won by a group of Bell Canada call-centre employees on Dec. 31. It is withholding the payout after others came forward to claim a share of the prize.

Contract lawyers reached by the Star say the dispute may not be clear-cut and could very well end up in court. “One golden rule in litigation is that anybody can make a claim for anything,” says civil litigation lawyer Gil Zvulony. “The question is once it gets to judicial scrutiny, will it stand up? “You can't just make these allegations because you're jealous that your co-workers are millionaires.”

The key, according to OLG spokesman Don Pister, is to “record who's in and who's out and keep a record.” But it's not always that easy, says contract lawyer Marek Tufman. “Just like in any contract situation, you can take steps to make sure the contract is firmed up in writing. But if all contracts were solid and foolproof, the likes of me and the courts would not be busy.”

In the case of the Bell Canada claims, there are reports that several people had been asked to pitch in for the pool and declined. Also, it has been reported other regular participants were away on vacation when the money was collected.


http://www.thestar.com/news/article/916916--how-to-avoid-sharks-in-office-lottery-pool

 

[eri]

Money tears apart friends and family.

 

[child of the sky]

Tuffman is on da case he'll work it out..that my bwoy

 

[just being honest]

Haps in the hood gurl! Hope ya dont mind me jocking your style. :na::

 

[Doctrine Man]

Lisa, get on with the program. Either speak our language or sell youself somewhere else. Stop with the phony talk please it is so cheap.

Ok slap me now.

 

[Tony Toni Tone]

I often wonder if she has to think this stuff up that she writes or does it just come naturally.

 

[Pompal 09.]

how bout u guys get wit de program & try reading the article OP posted, instead of worrying bout an A or H dat i didnt spell out infront of a sentence

i was sayin Marek Tufman is on the case ...he'll sort it out ...he is a good lawyer

now go suk yo momma - do u understand ?

 

[Nacho-Nick]

I read this article the other day and I couldn't help but think:

If the winner was an OLG retailer or employee the money would be in the bank account 2.2 seconds after they made the call.

Actually, I bet the winner wouldn't have to call, they'd just walk up to them with a boatload of cash and say 'here you go, have fun'.......

Anytime I was dumb enough to participate in this "tax on the stupid" we had a letter of agreement and if you missed that week's group buy? Tough titties. The saying went: you have to pay to play. If someone was away on vacation when the draw took place, we'd give the collector the money for as many weeks as we'd be away. Easy.

The whole problem is that people are too casual about it. Even in the article someone says "I wouldn't be greedy" but she doesn't have 50 mill in her hands. I know there's been cases with group buys where one person who has played in the group for 5 yrs, then miss the one time they win, they've been awarded a fair share by the courts. I know "ethically" it's the right thing to do but I wonder if someone has ever gone to the OLG saying: I play these numbers every week, this week I forgot to buy my tickets which happen to win, gimme my money...would they pay out? HELL no.

I can sympathize with the players who missed out on the winning week's group buy but hey, you should have thought about that before.....



Born in the ghetto, talk like the ghetto, act ghetto, need I say more?

 

[The physician]

It's time to bully another chick off the board for not being sexy enough with us! :he:

 

[elle.]

*jabs a stick at Lisa*

This is fun! :he:

 

[CheyGirl]

poke poke poke :666:

 

[kaiy2k]

actually, I'd say the same thing about you augman if you talked ghetto lol.....

 

[Matt R]

Money Talks

Money makes the world go round.

Money is why you see cars and trucks zoom up and down the roads and highways.

Who doesn't need the money ?
Only the dead.

 

[undercoverbabe911]

I think I read that the winners all quit "en masse". If I was one of the winners, I would be really pissed off that a) I haven't got a job and b) now I may not have my money for several YEARS over this issue.
I'm gonna bet that they offer the plaintiffs a settlement just to get what they won.

p.s.: I wouldn't have quit until the money was in my bank account

 

[stingray]

^^^ +100000000

But we're talking bell employees here remember.....if they quit before they got the money? I sure as hell wouldn't give them their jobs back, maybe at about 30% less than they were making before.....if they did quit em masse they left their employer hanging and I kind of doubt their bosses will be none too happy about letting back so easily.

The company I worked for where we played the Pres brought up his concerns that all the office people were playing. His argument was if we won, and all quit, the company would fold because they couldn't survive long enough to replace and train everyone. The GM said they couldn't do a thing about it and promptly bought into the group lol......

(but this was the same president who had us all on work share 4 day weeks because sales were down so much. Then he shows up with a brand new jaguar....the GM went into his office and closed the door and we heard him yell WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU lol)

 

[CharlyHeartsArsenal]

I once worked at a place where the owner sat us all down on a friday to tell us that they were short for the payroll and that they were temporarily going to pay us 80% of our pay. They'd make it up to us when things got straightened out.
I put my hand up to ask a question and the guy next to me said under his breath "Oh fuck, here it comes...."
"Hey asshole if you can't meet payroll maybe you could return your(brand new) Jag and your old man could return his (brand new) Mercedes to Budd's?"
Yah, I didn't last there too long......