What if you helped someone win the lottery?

[Rummy]

So for the past week I've been working in a different place to usual sort of unintentionally, and resultantly I've spent most of my time round the back of reception chatting with the receptionists(two middle aged ladies who are pretty south east london, and a young fellow who isn't quite so much). Anyway laughing and joking the lottery/euromillions come up, and I don't really play the lottery much at all, but it seems when the conversation comes up and all the usual 'if you won etc' stuff does I feel like maybe I should(and tend to)...so I did on my way home.

 

Instead of just geting mine though, I went and bought 3 tickets, one for me, one for the lady on reception if she wanted it(she was gonna get one later so I was saving her some trouble) and one for a chuckle that I said was a gift for all three of them. When it come to the lady picking her ticket of teh three - she made a joke about 'ahh but you'd hate me if i got the winning one!'

 

And it got me to thinking! What would you do if you 'helped' someone win the lottery? Like by giving them a ticket, even if for a chuckle - and then they won?

 

I'd also earlier told the lady a story of when my friend(worked in waitrose) owed me a few quid, but she gave me a lottery ticket a customer had given her instead. It was like 6 lucky dip lines, and it turned out to cash out for £20 after the draw. We never had any big chat about that as it was only £20, but I said fair was fair and I took it instead of the money so we kinda left it there.

 

But I got thinking - what if it was more, or big? Like if you bought/gave someone a ticket and they hit the jackpot? How would you feel? Do you think you'd feel like you deserve something? What if you were splitting tickets between you having bought them(and being suitably re-imbursed), and one of the others got the winning ticket? Would you feel like you're 'owed' a part of it? Would it depend how much they won? IE a tenner, a grand, or the big jackpot?

 

For me I was thinking after she joked that I wouldn't mind - clearly is as it is and that's that(small believer in fate, of sorts). But then I was thinking it over on the drive home and though - what if *I* get the winning ticket? Would I indulge them something over the chuckle we had? What if the communal/gift ticket comes up big - would I feel any right to be 'owed' something?

 

I do think I'd be fine with it on the whole, but money's a funny thing, and it just got me generally wondering....what would N-Europe do??

[Cube]

I wouldn't gift someone a lottery ticket.

 

If someone did gift me and I won big, then I would share some of it (less than 50%, though).

[bob]

It depends on who it was, but i think i'd probably give them half. I'm assuming that i know them fairly well, and seeing as it's money that i didn't have the minute before, why not give them half of it.

 

I guess therefore that i'd feel a bit pissed off if someone i bought a ticket for didn't share it with me.

[Goafer]

If I liked them, I'd give them half. If I hated them, I'd tell them why whilst leaning out of my shiny new Lambo.

[Jonnas]

If someone gave me a winning ticket, I'd definitely share something with them. In secret, preferably

 

If I gave someone else the winning ticket (something I don't do, but whatevs), then, I suppose I should have faith that they would decide to do something for me (even if not necessarily money). If they don't do anything... then I guess they would be downgraded from "friend" to "acquaintance".

[Aneres11]

I like this thread!

 

Funny you mention it actually, as I don't play the lottery ever. I dunno why. My whole family do it religiously, sisters are in a syndicate at work etc, but I just never do it.

 

Funny though at work last week. The lady I sit next to had to reset a password for one of our systems and she'd bee on hold for about half an hour. When she finally hung up, she was trying to think of a password to set as her new one. I could see she was trying words and getting errors as she said she'd used those words previously. So I just blurted out "Autumn14!"

And she stopped, looked at me and went, "Shut the fuck up, I have just typed that!"

She then proceeded to make me watch her type in the 'confirm password' box, 'Autumn14' and hit enter and it saved.

We were both like 'omg' haha. Weird too, as I have no idea where that came from! My password is nothing like that (not that I'd bark it out to her to try anyway!)

 

So the guy sat behind me also on our team grabbed a pen and went 'Quick - lottery number!'

 

To which I then blurted out the first 6 numbers that came into my head.

 

He actually wrote them down too and said he was going to put it on haha. He isn't in work this week until Thursday... so if he doesn't show he's either fled the country as a millionaire, or he's pulling a sicky to play GTA.

 

So yeah, my psychic voodoo-ness could have extended past just thinking of an exact password someone else was typing and was also thinking of at the same time, and I could have helped someone win the lottery. Highly unlikely, but was deffo worth a shot!

[Sméagol]

Lotteries are evil. I don´t want anything to do with gambling.. I know of better ways to spend / use my money. I´m not going to gift someone a ticket, and I probably refuse one if one was given to me. In fact, my dad tried to give me a lottery ticket once, a long time ago. He was just being nice I guess. He usually buys them for himself, but he said that I could cash in the ticket if it matched any winning numbers. Didn´t care at all. Didn't bother to check. Some days later, it appeared it actually did match a winning number, just a small prize of I dunno, maybe 20 euros or something. Would´ve been free money for me, but I just didn´t care.

[bob]

You ignored the offer of free money from a ticket you didn't even pay for? Where's the gamble in that?

[Sméagol]

Well, in that case it wasn't a gamble, but I dunno, I want to earn it I guess.

[bob]

I'll have it if you don't want it?

[Sméagol]

Haha, like I said, it was a long time ago, and it´s probably more fair if the money goes to, you know, the person who actually bought the ticket? :p

 

But you know what, next time someone gives me a winning lottery ticket with a 20 euro prize, I´ll give it to you if you personally come over here to receive it .

[EEVILMURRAY]

Demand a cut.

 

Also weird that this topic came up at work as someone wanted Christmas themed scratchcards to put in Christmas cards. Many of us were disgusted.

[Shorty]

I would probably be tempted to use cctv to prove I bought the ticket and claim not to know this other person. I'm nice like that.

[Iun]

I think I'd give 'em half: they paid for it, but it was a gift.

 

If I won 10 million in my own right, I would pay off any mortgages or loans everyone in my close family had - on the understanding that they waited five years before selling their house.

[Fierce_LiNk]

In general, I don't really take part in it and, if I do, the tickets are for myself and Ine. So, that takes care of that. But, if it did happen, I'd have that initial (and probably long lasting feeling) of "aw, so cloooose!" if I had given somebody a winning ticket. Still, you run that risk by gifting the ticket in the first place, so you just have to accept the consequences. I'd try my best to be happy for them if they did win. Somebody has to win, so it may as well be a friend.

 

If a friend had given me the ticket and I had won, I'd give them something out of the winnings. Probably split it 50/50, as that would be fair. Either way, you're winning a shit load of money for getting some numbers correct, so I hope that there would be no conflicts over this if it ever did happen.