Posted on 03/07/2012 2:13:38 PM PST by SMGFan
ELIZABETH, N.J., March 7 (UPI) -- A New Jersey man claims his winning $77 million lottery ticket was purchased independently, and is not the ticket he bought for a pool of five co-workers.
In a civil lawsuit that began Tuesday in Elizabeth, N.J., plaintiffs are accusing Americo Lopes of fraud, and demand that he share his winnings with them.
Lopes was the organizer of a lottery pool at the construction company where he worked, and made regular purchases of betting tickets. On Nov. 10, 2009 he held a winning Mega Millions ticket, but did not inform his co-workers, instead telling his supervisor he required time off for foot surgery, the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger reported. In March 2010 he returned to inform his boss he'd won the lottery and would not return to work, court papers said.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.
“This is just as true of the man who puts ‘native’ before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.
“But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.
“The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English- Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic.
“The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.”
Theodore Roosevelt, addressing the Knights of Columbus in New York City
“In court, plaintiff attorney Eric Kahn emphasized Lopes’ alleged deception after the windfall, never having had surgery and continuing to collect off-season unemployment checks, customary in the industry. “
The case will be settled based on the law, not his moral character.
“No evidence? Ya got 5 people willing to testify against one, and in fact it’s already been established, this guy is a liar.”
Innocent men have gone to jail because 5 high school girls decided they didn’t like a particular teacher, and then accused him of inappropriate touching. Not being popular does not mean that a person loses their standing in a court of law.
There was already a pattern of 5 co-workers playing lotto pool together.
In fact, Lopes was the organizer of a lottery pool at the construction company.
Another fact is, it’s already been established Lopes is GD a liar and attempted to deceive the others.
My bet, Lopes will split voluntarily, or be forced to by a court to split.
“There was already a pattern of 5 co-workers playing lotto pool together.”
It’s just a question of whether the law will be followed. It’s AMAZING to me that so many FReepers want to IGNORE the law.
If we got five FReepers to call you an A-hole, it doesn’t make it true.
The players picked the numbers themselves and I'm sure they checked them faithfully...just like we all do.
Americo also bought 2 computer generated tickets for himself that day and one of those was the winner.
The numbers for the group were picked by the group. Americo won on a computer generated ticket he bought for himself.
The law is the law, however, when someone intentionally deceives others, there is generally a motive for doing so.
That was my point.
If I won the lottery, I would go to work the next day just like usual. That's because I like my career and have no desire to be idle. Sure, I'd increase my standard of living. I'd drive a fancier car, take more vacations to Hawaii and drink some better wine. However, I'd get up and go to work everyday just like always because I like doing what I do.
In fact, if I could get away with it, I would keep my lottery win a secret. Wouldn't tell my co-workers and I certainly wouldn't tell my family (other than my wife) - as I'd have relatives that haven't talked to me in years show up on my doorstep hat in hand.
That's probably the secret to beating the "lottery curse." Just keep a low profile and continue business as usual.
As for lottery pools, I always that was a stupid idea. Just buy your own tickets. That way, you can keep your win a secret and won't have to deal with a bunch of squabbling co-workers claiming their "fair share" if you do win.
As an aside, I was at a convention for work some years ago out in Arizona and we went to one of those Indian casinos. A co-worker of mine bummed some money off me to play some slot machines and he proceeded to win a $600 jackpot. He gave me my money back but didn't offer to split any of his winnings. I never thought ill of him for it and didn't expect that he should share the jackpot he won. I got the money back I that I loaned him and I was happy with that. That Arizona casino did have some killer margaritas and after about four of those, I proceeded to lose a bunch of my money at the blackjack table.
real easy to find out...all lottery tickets in NJ are sequentially numbered on the back...If he bought
(let’s say 10)turn the tickets over and look at the numbers..
if the winning number is out of sequence..he is not lying!
I photocopy all numbers I buy for the guys..front and back to avoid..just this type of situation..
Have a gut feeling that "the pool" are the scammers here.
Had to look that up. Do you really think such an oblique reference to an obscure Wisconsin lottery ticket is common knowledge?
Ok well anyway, let's assume 100 people walked away with $2M each.
How many of them blew that within 6 weeks?
6 years later, how many of them are net losers (less than $2M)?
How many who were middle-class, barely making ends meet but had a net-positive net-worth are now negative, upside-down on homes, cars, harebrained businesses?
And how many of their kids' and extended families lives were ruined with visions of free sugar plums dancing in their heads "Pa, it's not fair for you to have $2M and I have to have a summer job...."
Dickens explains all this quite clearly in Bleak House. (There's an obscure english literature reference which once was once more broadly known than a lottery ticket in Wisconsin....really tells everything about our argument.)
Good points, all.
Moderation is also a virtue. I wonder if it’s the naturally enforced equilibrium as well? Maybe as unemployment gets to a certain level everyone will start to compete to get just above the other slacker again.
When austerity measures start cutting like they are in Greece and everyone’s golden goose gets cooked, maybe the initial reaction will be riots and such.
But maybe there will be enough of Galt’s Gulch left for others to return to the breach while perhaps tax and regulations are at an enforcement ebb.
Ah well. Fun to think positively once in a while! =-)
That's funny. You're a funny guy.
: )
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