Most lottery pools run on a handshake. The handshake works until the pool wins, and then ten people discover they each remember a different deal. A written agreement is the cure, and it does not have to be long. Ours is nine short sections in plain words. You can read the full template at /agreement/.
This guide walks through it section by section: what each one says, why it exists, and what it looks like in the record. The text quoted here is the template as of October 7, 2026 (section 8 changed that day: payment disputes stay; ticket and contribution problems go to pool chat, and after the drawing the paper ticket decides). It is a plain-English template, not legal advice; if the wording changes again, this guide changes with it, and an agreement a pool already accepted keeps its own words.
How the blanks get filled
The template has blanks: the pool’s name, the game, the state, the share price, the admin’s name, the successor’s name, and three policy choices. The admin’s answers in the create-pool steps fill them. The result is a complete agreement for that pool, and that exact text is what every member accepts.
Section 1: What this is
The agreement names the pool as a private pool for one game in one state, and then says what ShareTheWinning is not. We record what the pool does. We do not sell tickets, hold money or take any share of a prize. The official ticket is the only real lottery play.
Why it is there: so nobody mistakes the app for the lottery, and so the pool’s members know the platform has no stake in the outcome.
Section 2: Shares and the pot
One share costs the stated price. You own the shares you paid for before the lock, and only those. Your share of any prize is your shares divided by all shares in the locked snapshot for that drawing.
Why: this is the whole split formula in two sentences. There are no side deals, no “I meant to pay for two.” If Maria holds two shares out of eleven, Maria gets two elevenths, to the cent, with the leftover cents assigned by largest remainder and shown. Ten friends, one jackpot works an example, and the split calculator does it for any pool.
Section 3: Paying in
You pay the Pool Admin directly (cash, Venmo, Zelle or similar) and mark it paid in the pool. The admin confirms it. Then comes the pool’s first policy choice: a share that is not confirmed when the pool locks is either dropped (the default: the person is not in that drawing and is owed nothing from it) or covered by the admin (the person is in, and owes the admin the share price).
Why: “I said I was in” is the most common pool argument in the news. This section answers it before it happens, and the snapshot shows the answer.
Section 4: The lock
At the lock time shown on the pool, the members, shares and confirmed payments freeze into a snapshot that cannot be edited. Corrections after the lock are recorded as new events everyone can see.
Why: the lock is what makes the rest of the agreement enforceable. Nothing about who owns what can change once the ticket is about to be bought. If a mistake is found later, it is fixed in the open as a new entry, never by quietly editing the old one.
Section 5: Buying and recording tickets
The admin buys the official tickets at a licensed retailer in the pool’s state and records every ticket and every line, with photos, before the drawing. Every member can see every ticket.
Why: the photo, uploaded before the drawing and stamped with the time our server received it (never the time a phone says it was taken), is how the pool proves which ticket is the pool’s. A ticket recorded after the drawing time, by the server’s clock, carries a permanent flag. There is no version of “I bought that line for myself” that survives this section.
Section 6: Prizes
Prizes are checked against the official results. Small prizes are split by share and paid by the admin to each member. Then two more policy choices appear in the text:
- Rollover. Either “winnings under [amount] per drawing roll into the next drawing’s pot instead of being paid out,” or “every prize is paid out to members; nothing rolls over.” The admin sets the amount when creating the pool, or leaves it empty.
- Over-purchase. If the admin paid for more plays than the pot covered, either the extra is a gift to the pool that changes nobody’s share (the default), or it is paid back to the admin from winnings before the split.
Why: a $4 win split ten ways is forty cents each and ten Venmo requests. Many pools would rather roll it into next week. And admins round up at the counter all the time; the pool should know in advance whether that is a gift or a loan. When nobody buys the ticket covers the under- and over-purchase cases.
Section 7: Large prizes
If a prize must be claimed at a lottery office, the Pool Admin, named here, claims it as the person holding the ticket, on behalf of the members in the snapshot, and the pool goes on hold until the official amount is known. A named successor admin may act if the admin cannot be reached for 72 hours. Taxes are each member’s own responsibility.
Why: every lottery says how it pays a group, and they differ. In Wisconsin: Wisconsin pays one claimant; the agreement names who claims and how the pool splits it. One person signs a group ticket and the Wisconsin Lottery pays that claimant; paying several winners on one ticket takes a court order. (Wisconsin Lottery FAQ, checked Oct 1, 2026) In Minnesota: The pool agreement names who claims. The Minnesota Lottery publishes how a group claims: there is no limit on how many people can claim, and each person who wants part of the prize fills out an individual claim form. (Minnesota Lottery FAQ, checked Oct 8, 2026) Naming the claimant and a backup in advance removes the scramble, whatever your state asks for. “On hold” means nothing in the round can change while the claim is worked out. The tax line is a reminder that, where one person claims for the group, the claimant hands the lottery IRS Form 5754 so each member gets their own tax form, which How a pool claims a prize explains.
Section 8: Leaving, disputes and the record
You may leave at any time; shares already locked for a drawing stay yours for that drawing. If anyone disagrees about a payment, either side can tap “Something’s wrong” on it, and the affected drawing goes on hold until it is resolved. A ticket or contribution problem is raised in pool chat. Before the drawing, the Pool Admin can replace a wrong ticket entry, and the replacement is on the record. After the drawing, the official paper ticket decides, and the Pool Admin can contact ShareTheWinning. The full record, including every change, stays available to every member.
Why: people leave jobs and friend groups. The rule that locked shares stay yours means nobody can be pushed out between the purchase and the drawing. The dispute rule means a disagreement about a payment stops the round rather than being steamrolled, and a wrong ticket entry is fixed in the open before the drawing, where every member sees the replacement. After the drawing the paper ticket is what the lottery pays on, so the record never argues with it. And the record is the point of the whole exercise.
Section 9: Age and law
You confirm you are at least the stated minimum age and that playing the lottery is legal where you are. The pool is not available where group pools are restricted.
Why: the minimum age comes from the pool’s state, and some places restrict group play. The member attests; the pool records the attestation.
What happens when a member leaves
Three things, in order. The member’s status in the pool becomes “left,” with the date. Their shares in any round that has already locked stay in that round’s snapshot, so a win on that ticket still pays them. They hold no shares in rounds that open afterward. The leaving is an audit event every member can see. Nobody edits the past; the pool simply stops including the person going forward.
The record it produces
When a member accepts the agreement, the pool stores four things: the exact version of the text, a fingerprint (hash) of that text, the server’s time of acceptance, and the IP address it came from. Every later lock records which agreement version was in force. If the pool ever wins at a level that needs a lawyer, this is the first document in the export bundle, next to the snapshot and the ticket photos.
Written before the ticket, accepted by everyone, stored with its fingerprint: that is what turns a handshake into a record. Office pool rules that stop arguments lists the eight questions the agreement answers. The “Make it real” stop on the Journey is where a pool is created and the agreement goes out with the invite.
