Lottery pool contract: Sample

1. I am the Group Leader for this draw and, as such, I have absolute discretion, including determining who may play or not play in this draw.
2. If your signature is not on this group-play form, then you are not a member of this lottery group.
3. If you have not paid in full for this draw prior to purchase of the tickets, then you are not a member of this lottery group.
4. Each lottery draw and each lottery group-play form is a new agreement to play the lottery. As such, there is no “regular” group or “regular” member. The group-play form as signed, and the money as paid in advance of each ticket purchase, determines the lottery group for this particular draw.
5. If a person is sick or on vacation or otherwise unavailable to sign this form or to contribute their money, then he/she is not a member of this group. There is no legal or moral obligation on the part of the Group Leader or other member to contribute on his/her behalf.
6. As Group Leader, I shall manage this list, collect members’ contributions, purchase the tickets, distribute copies of the tickets along with the list of group members prior to the draw, validate the tickets after the draw and report the results of the draw as soon as reasonably possible, but in every case, prior to the next draw.
7. The Group Leader will purchase or repurchase Quick Picks without Encore in his/her discretion. There is no ownership in any particular group of numbers played.
8. If the group wins free tickets in a draw, then the tickets will be replayed in isolation immediately by the same group in the next draw as a separate group draw (and so on, if more free tickets are won). No new members may join this group.
9. If the group wins cash in a draw, then it will be distributed equally among members of the group, or used to purchase tickets in the next draw by the same group (and so on, if more cash and/or free tickets are won). If used to purchase tickets for the next draw, then no new members may join this group.
10. If there is a dispute among members of the lottery group about any aspect of the groups’ play, the dispute shall not be resolved in the courts but instead will be resolved by an independent certified arbitrator selected by the Group Leader and a simple majority of the members of the lottery group. The arbitrator’s decision shall be final. The arbitrator shall determine who is responsible for his/her costs.
11. The members of the group have a duty of good faith to each other and will treat each other fairly and with respect.
12. The Group Leader has no liability for his/her work as Group Leader other than to manage the group’s money honestly, either by purchasing tickets as set out above, or returning their money to them in the event tickets are not purchased. The members of the group hereby release the Group Leader from all liability in all other respects.
13. By signing this form, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the above terms.

Members
Name/Signature

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This template was created for “When office lotto pools go bad,” Oct. 8, 2014.

After settling one of the country’s biggest legal battles over a lottery jackpot last Thursday, Michael Cochrane returned to his office at the Toronto law firm Brauti Thorning Zibarras and jokingly suggested to a colleague that the firm start its own office pool for that Friday’s $22-million Lotto Max. “Absolutely, I’m in,” his colleague told him. “I’ll pay you tomorrow.” Minutes later, a law clerk popped her head in his door to say she’d heard Cochrane was collecting for a draw.

Given that Cochrane had spent the past three years representing Christopher Bates, a Bombardier employee who claimed he was wrongly shut out of a workplace lottery pool in which 24 of his co-workers won the $50-million jackpot, his own proposed workplace lottery pool was shaping up to be worryingly informal.

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