# Lottery pool wins big lottery, badly affects small business. Has this happened? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 22, 2013, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-pool-wins-big-lottery-badly-affects-small-business-has-this-happened/659035 "2013-05-22T16:43:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-pool-wins-big-lottery-badly-affects-small-business-has-this-happened/659035/1 "2013-05-22T16:43:08Z")
Has anyone ever heard of a case where a lottery pool winning lottery negatively affected the group’s employer? For example, if there was a small business of 15 employees and 12 of them (not the owner) won a huge lottery together, that would severely impact the business as they would probably all quit. The owner would have to replace many employees all at once and probably years of corporate knowledge and experience would evaporate overnight. Has anyone ever heard of this? I have heard of small groups winning, but nothing large. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-pool-wins-big-lottery-badly-affects-small-business-has-this-happened/659035/2 "2013-05-22T17:53:21Z")
My favourite story was the group that won in Quebec many years ago. they were just recovering from a long strike, and the unionized workers were holding a grudge against the non-strikers. The non-strikers were excluded from the ticket-buying group, which won a substantial jackpot… ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-pool-wins-big-lottery-badly-affects-small-business-has-this-happened/659035/3 "2013-05-22T18:41:30Z")
Previous thread from 2008: When the office pool wins the lottery > **[When the office pool wins the lottery](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=456039)** > > The MegaMillions jackpot (shared by several of the US states) is now up to $220,000,000 when taken as a 26-year annuity, or about $125,000,000 as a lump-sum. But that’s only the example that made me ask this question. There are many other gigantic... Has a few interesting stories in it. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-pool-wins-big-lottery-badly-affects-small-business-has-this-happened/659035/4 "2013-05-22T19:56:38Z")
At my office, the owners always buy in as well, knowing that their employees will leave. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-pool-wins-big-lottery-badly-affects-small-business-has-this-happened/659035/5 "2013-05-22T20:55:32Z")
A while back, I heard the story of the machine-shop guys that all bought in a pool and won. When asked what they intended to do with the winnings, the most popular was “Start my own machine-shop!” I guess owning your own business is the ultimate blue-collar dream. So, not only did the original business lose all the skilled labor, now there are 4-6 competitors! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-pool-wins-big-lottery-badly-affects-small-business-has-this-happened/659035/6 "2013-05-23T14:19:18Z")
What’s more likely is a lawsuit over the winnings. Just a few examples… [ul] [li][Construction workers in New Jersey won the lottery](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/nyregion/americo-lopes-lottery-winner-ordered-to-share-with-his-betting-pool.html?_r=1&hpw), but the guy in charge of the tickets didn’t tell them. He just kept the money for himself.[/li] [li]Employees at a Chicago Bakery that won a lottery [were sued by other co-workers](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/16/chicago-bakery-employees-lottery_n_1522273.html) who weren’t invited to participate.[/li] [li]Likewise, an Ohio man [sued for a share](http://gawker.com/5837302/man-sues-coworkers-for-share-of-99-million-lottery-winnings) after his 22 co-workers won the lottery.[/li] [li]And this story documents two separate instances of [leftout co-workers in Canada](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/for-group-lottery-winners-jackpot-is-tough-luck/article566359/) suing the winners.[/li] [/ul] And here’s one good news story… 12 of the 13 workers at a real estate office in Florida won an office pool. [They offered a winning share to the one lady who didn’t put her dollar in](http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/26/3308239/lucky-lady-she-opted-out-of-powerball.html). ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-pool-wins-big-lottery-badly-affects-small-business-has-this-happened/659035/7 "2013-05-23T16:36:09Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > A while back, I heard the story of the machine-shop guys that all bought in a pool and won. When asked what they intended to do with the winnings, the most popular was “Start my own machine-shop!” I guess owning your own business is the ultimate blue-collar dream. > > So, not only did the original business lose all the skilled labor, now there are 4-6 competitors! 😃 The good news is that after the 4-6 learn how hard it is to own a business (rather than just working in one) they’ll be broke and back as employees. And there will be a lot of surplus equipment available at fire sale prices. If the owner can hold out a couple of years, he should be fine. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lottery-pool-wins-big-lottery-badly-affects-small-business-has-this-happened/659035/8 "2013-05-23T17:57:54Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I guess owning your own business is the ultimate blue-collar dream. I’d guess it’s probably along the lines of wanting to be one’s own boss and profit entirely from the fruits of one’s labor. I mean, I was a consultant for a while, billed out at the obnoxious rate of $350 per hour. I was only paid in the mid-50k per year range, with some occasional bonuses. I sometimes think it would be nice to go work and bill myself out at 2/3 that rate, and get to keep it all, but then I remember that while I might make more money after all is said and done, I’d have to be my own boss, go sell business (non-billable), travel everywhere, etc… and then have to put in serious hours on top of that to do the actual jobs. The big consulting firms can do that stuff because the marginal cost of the administrative and sales staffs are spread across entire practices, not one person. No thanks. Even at $350 per hour, I don’t know that I’d make enough money to be worth that much of my time.