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