A Dilemma

[cjd]

Here's one to get your moral brains around.

A neighbour going on holiday rings me from the steps of the plane. It's a record rollover week and he want me to buy £10 worth of lucky jackpot cards.

He knows I'm a lottery virgin - I reckon anybody spending money on it is barking mad - but he knows I'll buy them for him.

But here's the problem. What do I do if the tickets I buy win?

Options if they win £27m are

1. keep it all (I bought them with my money)
2. split the winnings
3. hand it all over

and, an evil one this,

4, buy 11 tickets, keep the winner and hand the ten losers back to neighbour demanding the £10

Tricky huh

 

[Optegris]

option one. I do have morals but £27m is enough to buy them

 

Option 1 - and run away before he comes back, making sure you leave him some milk and bread for when he returns.

 

[Cornish Steve]

Tough though it may be, option #3. If your neighbour has scruples, he'll give you some of the winnings.

I'm reminded of the story of a man alone in a railway carriage with a woman. He asks her a question: "For five million pounds, would you sleep with me tonight?" After a pause, she responds "Yes". After a minute or two, the man asks another question: "For five pounds, would you sleep with me tonight?" The woman gets upset and shouts "Of course not! What kind of woman do you think I am?" The man answers, "I thought we'd already determined that and were now haggling over the price."

That's exactly the point here. Will we stick with our morals when the 'reward' for violating them becomes very high? Be careful because another way of putting the question is "How much will it take to bribe you?".

 

[JohnOvManchester]

I would hand it over and hope he chucks me half

 

[compuclean]

I'd bank it until he comes back. You'll make a few pennies on the interest on £27m!

 

[Millionaire]

Tell him that he wasn't the only winner and that the prize was shared between many more people. That way you only have to give him a small proportion of the £27million and can keep the vast majority of it for yourself. Although he may become a little agitated to see you in a new ferrari only a week later; but who cares, he wouldn't have a penny if it wasn't for your generosity.

Chris

 

[SillyJokes]

Does he always use the same numbers? If so, he'll know if he has won.

In the States they have some very strange rules about winnings I think. If someone is with you when you win on a slot machine you have to share (in Vegas slot machines are everywhere, even at the supermarket).

Buy the exact same tickets twice - that way you will have to share the winnings.

 

[Bathead]

4, buy 11 tickets, keep the winner and hand the ten losers back to neighbour demanding the £10

I like this one, but he would be suspicious if each ticket was individual, so how do you know which one to be separate?

Aaah, you could print a bogus ticket containing the winner. Get him to check a photocopy of it and hold the ticket for a ransom, showing him a glimpse of the 'real' ticket. Tell him if you claim it you will keep it all. Take him for around 500k and do a runner.

Mick
Wormwood Scrubs

 

[Cornish Steve]

in Vegas slot machines are everywhere, even at the supermarket

Personally, I hate the place. There are slot machines all over the airport. There are slot machines in all the hotels. There are slot machines everywhere. Within a few seconds, you get tired of all the musical jingles that issue from them. I had to attend a conference there earlier this year, and I couldn't wait to get home.

 

I would buy them, but just don't even check them.

The chances are he will not win anything too big anyway, so it should not really be a problem.

If he asked you to buy them, he must trust you enough - don't go ruining that for a non-existent lottery win.

 

[cjd]

Well to bring us all up to date.

I heard on the radio at about 4pm that lottery tickets were being sold at 3 million per hour. So I asked my daughter to buy them as she was out shopping.

She rang to say that there were no 'lucky jackpot' tickets left, what should she do? I said buy £10 of whatever there is left. She came back with £10 worth of silly scratch cards.

So new dilemma. Do I scratch the cards?

 

[SillyJokes]

I've got some scratch cards for you.

Imagine how your friend will laugh when he gets one of these instead of a share in the £20 mill you robbed him of.

 

[Cornish Steve]

So what was all that about "anybody spending money on it is barking mad" - or are you saying that your daughter bought tickets for you, who bought them on behalf of a neighbour? Is that now a 3-way split?

 

[cjd]

I've got some scratch cards for you.

Imagine how your friend will laugh when he gets one of these instead of a share in the £20 mill you robbed him of.

I'm very tempted by the cards, but he might burn down my house.

So what was all that about "anybody spending money on it is barking mad" - or are you saying that your daughter bought tickets for you, who bought them on behalf of a neighbour? Is that now a 3-way split?

The daughter added a new element to the dilemma; my wife and I were discussing it over dinner. We reckoned that as she'd bought the tickets (albeit on a promise of full cost recovery) she'd check the numbers and if there was a winner we'd never see her again.

(We brought her up right, 'greed is good etc')

 

[Rhyl Lightworks]

I can't believe this is a serious question. Perhaps it isn't. If you can't do him a favour without the temptation of ripping him off, you should refuse to do it.
Barrie

 

[Mac Yeti]

Keep them and wait and see if he even wants them first, since they are not what he asked for.

Or, if you can't resist temptation pop them in an envelope and put them through his door.

 

[theMBA]

You could just say that you assumed that you and your friend were jointly buying the tickets as a syndicate, and share the winnings with hm 50/50. That way, you get loads of loot, and your friend can't complain either, as you could have assumed something very different, leaving him nothing.

 

[cjd]

I can't believe this is a serious question. Perhaps it isn't. If you can't do him a favour without the temptation of ripping him off, you should refuse to do it.
Barrie

It's not a serious question; I just think it's an interesting.

If the tickets had won the £27m it would have become a very serious question, but you're out of you mind if you think I'd discuss it here

 

[Arcadian]

Like everyone I have extremely high moral standards. Like everyone I can be bought . Anything over £10 million I might take the money and leg it. I don't have sufficient confidence and skills to make that money in business. My price for the train thing would naturally be slightly lower. Ditto re skillls .....

I don't think I'd want to buy a lottery ticket for anyone without something in writing. The curse of an ancient law degree. If they give you their numbers then it's their ticket and their win if the numbers come up. It would be very mean of them if they didn't give you some of it. If you're buying a lucky dip ticket then what happens if you buy one or more for yourself at the same time? Maybe you should buy two and say they're both shared so you split the winnings. Whatever you do don't give them to someone else for safekeeping, at least not some moral reprobate like me.

If you end up buying something else or putting it on a horse then no deal. The request was for a lottery ticket, not something sui generis (ooh look - I remember stuff!).

 

[Cornish Steve]

My price for the train thing would naturally be slightly lower.

Have you had any PMs yet asking what that price is?

 

[Arcadian]

Yea - a strange one from Duane asking if I'd like a new forum and trying to sell me a banner ad ...