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Lottery Pools: How to Set Them Up (first in a series)

In the past few weeks lottery pools in New Mexico and Pennsylvania have won major jackpots, but every day office pools are winning money aound the country. We only hear about the big winners.

I’ve been covering the lottery from the inside for almost ten years and lottery pools have won many of the larger jackpots. Check out my weekly list of top jackpots of all time in America, which I’ll publish every Saturday, starting tomorrow.

In 2000, I wrote a very popular (now out of print and out of date) book on lotteries and later in 2009, an updated version of that book will be released. The book is aimed at both beginners and experienced players.

One chapter is devoted to pools. Here are some things that those of you considering pooling your lottery bets should consider.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll offer more suggestions.

The owner ship of a pool is based normally on investments. For example, if you have five players in the pool and each buy the same number of tickets, each “partner” would own 20 percent of the winning jackpot. Your pool should have an agreement, at least verbally, and appoint someone in charge.

I recommend the agreement be written and notarized, but that rarely happens.

There have been disagreements and threatened lawsuits about ticket ownership, so protect yourself before you invest, particularly if some of the players in the pool are unknown to you. It is always better to participate with people you know.

More, next time.

If you have any stories about a pool you are in, I’d be eager to share them with this community of players. Best stories will get a free copy of my year 2000 book, “Jackpot.”

In the Money:

Tonight’s Mega Millions jackpot is $16 million.

Saturday’s Powerball jackpot is $20 million.

Good luck.

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