[Protagoras]

If the person buying the ticket signs the back of it, then only that person can claim the prize even if the ticket falls into somebody else's hands.

Does that prevent you from claiming multiple owners? If so, it would explain why many don't do it.

[Terry Mross]

I knew a black woman who won the lottery. Turns out she was still married. Eight years earlier her husband had tried to divorce her but she wouldn't sign the papers and he didn't have enough money to pursue it further. So, after she won she was on the radio, TV, in the paper, etc. He says, "I want my half since Texas is a community property state." I think she was getting 9 million over 20 years. She refused to cash the ticket. Her contention was that it wasn't a "winner" until she cashed it in. She was going to get a divorce first. He took her to court and the judge ordered her to cash the ticket. It ended up he settled for one million cash tax free. I also knew him and liked him. He was a decent guy. She was not a good person. And get this, her boyfriend tried to claim that he loaned her the money to buy the ticket but that dog didn't hunt.

[SamAdams76]

The person who signs the ticket can then arrange for the winnings to be disbursed as he/she sees fit. Usually when multiple owners are involved (such as an office pool), they hire a lawyer. The lawyer than claims the ticket and divvies up the winnings (after taking his cut, of course). All of this is drawn up legally ahead of time.

But it is never a good idea to participate in such a pool because there are invariably hard feelings. I can't remember all the details but there was an office pool a few years back that won a multi-million dollar prize. It got real nasty because the group tried cutting out a couple of members who didn't pony up the money that particular week. As well, other co-workers who weren't in the pool tried to claim that they were and so forth. It got ugly.