NY Lottery Offers Tips for Powerball Office Pools

Are you already in an office pool for Wednesday’s $1.4 billion+ Powerball drawing? Are you considering setting one up or contributing?

The New York State Gaming Commission has tips for you.

“Before soliciting names and collecting money toward the purchase of tickets for Wednesday’s Powerball drawing or any other New York Lottery drawing, there are a number of strategic and pragmatic steps that need to be taken into consideration to ensure a fun and positive outcome for all involved,” said Gardner Gurney, Director of the Division of the Lottery.

Lottery officials recommend:

• Elect a group leader who will be responsible for collecting and accounting money from the group.
• Keep an accurate list of all participants, make note of those who opt out and distribute the list to all whose name appears on the list to avoid any confusion later on.
• Agree on who will buy the ticket and where and when the ticket(s) will be purchased.
• The buyer should provide a copy of the ticket to all in the group within a specified period of time prior to the drawing.
• Consider limiting the number of people in the office pool to 10 or less.

In the case of a group winner, the New York Lottery can issue individual checks to up to 10 individuals. Groups of 11 players or more that win have several options:

• Consider forming a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) and listing each person in the group as a member. The Lotterywill pay the prize to the LLC under the LLC’s tax ID number. The group leader would be responsible for making the disbursement to each LLC member.
• Consider forming a Trust and listing each member as a beneficiary. In this scenario, the Lottery would make the prize directly available to the Trust utilizing the Trust’s tax identification number. The Trust would then make the disbursements to the group.
• Groups also have the option of electing up to 10 individuals within the group to receive the prize, making those individuals 100 percent responsible for all tax implications associated with the prize. They would also be responsible for disbursing all funds to the rest of the group.
  

The frenzy has grown exponentially since Saturday’s Powerball drawing came and went after much anticipation. The winning numbers were 16-19-32-34-57 and Powerball 13, however there were no winners for the near $950 million jackpot.

The odds of winning the big prize are 1 in 292,201,338, according to MarketWatch. The service points out that the chances of being struck by lightning in any given year are 1 in 700,000. Officials at the Multi-State Lottery Association said they expected 75 percent of the possible number combinations to have been sold for Saturday’s drawing, according to the Associated Press.

According to the official Powerball website, the jackpot is won by matching all five white balls, in any order, and the red Powerball. But if you miss that coveted Powerball, you can still win a cool million dollars.

Click here to see how you can win a Powerball Prize

If no one matches all five numbers plus the Powerball for Wednesday’s drawing, the jackpot will continue to grow. The payout is based on sales and ticket sales have continued to increase as the pot has grown.

Powerball is played in 44 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Prior to this jackpot, the largest Powerball jackpot $590.5 million, won in Florida in May 2013.

Kentucky Lottery spokesman Chip Polston told courierjournal.com that lottery mania had reached “uncharted waters.”

SEE ALSO:

• Playing The Powerball With Co-Workers, Friends: What To Know
• 6 Winning Powerball Tickets Sold in California
• Connecticut Man Wins $1 Million Powerball Prize
• 3 $1M Winning Powerball Tickets Sold in New York