Lotto Winner Refuses to Share With Co-workers

Stacko

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Story.

A McDonald’s employee who says she has one of the winning tickets from Friday’s $656-million Mega Millions draw won’t share her jackpot with co-workers in her lottery pool.

Mirlande Wilson, a single mother of seven living in Baltimore, says she bought the ticket with her own money, separate from the tickets in the syndicate. Her co-workers tell a different story.
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The worst part.

Staff at the Baltimore area 7-Eleven convenience store that sold the winning Maryland ticket said lottery officials had viewed in-store surveillance video and concluded that a man had bought the lucky ticket late Friday.
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For her sake that better be her boyfriend she sent to buy it and not a fellow employee.
 
Stacko said:
Story.



The worst part.



For her sake that better be her boyfriend she sent to buy it and not a fellow employee.
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Well if it is a man, it doesn't fit with her co-workers story:

Article in OP said:
According to the other McDonald’s employees, who earn about $7 an hour, they paid US$5 each before sending Wilson to buy tickets for the draw.
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Do you actually get to choose which numbers you play in this lottery? If so, the easiest thing is for the syndicate to play the same numbers every week. And have a signed agreement, of course.
 
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If she was responsible for buying the syndicate ticket, bought more than one ticket based on random numbers and did not publicly declare which was the syndicate's before the draw, then it would seem fair that the money was split as the decision on what belongs to her and others is arbitrary.
 
Any chance she's been scamming her cow-orkers out of their lottery money? I have a recollection of that happening here; a guy was collecting lottery pool money from his coworkers and keeping it, figuring out that the lottery company always wins in the end. And it does, but unlike him, they sell enough tickets to cover the costs of someone hitting a jackpot.
 
One of the employees I use to work with frequently bought lotto tickets for a pool and also for himself.

He always made xerox copies of the official receipt showing the number he played for the pool and passed them out BEFORE the winning number was announced.

Its very easy to handle this in a clear and transparent manner.

This story sounds fishy.
 
Cayvmann said:
The story I read said that the pool tickets were put into the safe at work. It was after she won that the manager claimed to have given her $5 more to get more tickets for the pool. Smells fishy to me. The ticket that won was not in the safe...

Here's another story with the pool tickets mentioned: http://www.essence.com/2012/04/04/real-talk-the-office-lotto-pool-you-in-or-out/
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I think the final paragraph from that article shows where she stands.


If Wilson does turn out to be the winner — officials have not confirmed that she is — she doesn’t have a way around this one. Yes, she reportedly holds the winning ticket, and possession is nine-tenths of the law, but if she went in with her co-workers, there’s no such thing as “separate tickets.” Other lottery winners have tried her move — to claim the winning numbers weren’t part of the group — and they were sued. The plaintiffs (and their lawyers) got their cut. Surely, if Raheem on fries was holding the winning ticket to the pool, Wilson would expect and deserve her cut.
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I wonder how many people there were in the lottery pool. If the jackpot is split three ways, it'll be $218 million and change (assuming it's split evenly). Even if it's 20 or 30 people, it's still big bucks for everyone.
 
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The whole story sounds like a Filet-o-Fish. The ticket is still hidden in the restaurant? If so, not any more...
I imagine the run on that store will be worse than that on the banks on Black Tuesday.
 
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Information Analyst said:
Do you actually get to choose which numbers you play in this lottery? If so, the easiest thing is for the syndicate to play the same numbers every week. And have a signed agreement, of course.
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The way my fiance's coworkers did it was one person bought the tickets and then they photocopied the numbers and everyone in the pool got a copy. Then there is no question as to what numbers everyone had.
 
So long as the co-workers can demonstrate that a pool existed, that the pool played the lottery that week, and that Wilson purchased tickets for the pool, the burden will rest with Wilson. If Wilson can demonstrate that she actually bought a seperate set of tickets, and that the seperate ticket was the winner, then she will keep all the money. Otherwise, the courts will (assuming past rulings are indicative of future rulings) award the co-workers a share.
 
All one has to do in a shared lottery agreement, is sign an agreement giving each member undersigned an equal share in winnings won with either an agreed number scheme, or numbers bought for the group in a manner consistent with past practice.
In North America, there have been disputes like this in several cases, generally after big wins, such as in this instance.
I suppose one plays a shared winnings ticket at ones own peril, unless protected by a user/player agreement. Caveat emptor.
 
sarge said:
So long as the co-workers can demonstrate that a pool existed, that the pool played the lottery that week, and that Wilson purchased tickets for the pool, the burden will rest with Wilson. If Wilson can demonstrate that she actually bought a seperate set of tickets, and that the seperate ticket was the winner, then she will keep all the money. Otherwise, the courts will (assuming past rulings are indicative of future rulings) award the co-workers a share.
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If the syndicate tickets are in the office safe, then surely the manager needs to prove his claim that extra tickets were to be bought?
 
timhau said:
I wonder how many people there were in the lottery pool. If the jackpot is split three ways, it'll be $218 million and change (assuming it's split evenly). Even if it's 20 or 30 people, it's still big bucks for everyone.
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That's what's always sad about cases like this. Often even the split winnings would be significant/life-changing for everyone on an equal cut, but the person holding the ticket can often get too greedy.
 
Jaggy Bunnet said:
If the syndicate tickets are in the office safe, then surely the manager needs to prove his claim that extra tickets were to be bought?
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She doesn't seem to be disputing the owner's story at this time. From the story Cavyman linked to:


That evening, before the night’s drawing, the owner of the McDonald’s says he gave Wilson $5 to buy more tickets for the pool. Wilson bought those tickets and, she claims, another batch just for her, and one of those happened to have the winning numbers.
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