We always just had a list of everyone and how much they paid in. Then we'd hand a copy of that list, plus photocopies of all the tickets to everyone in the pool. If we won a small amount or a free ticket, it went into the next week's pool.

Yep, same as jrossi4r. Even more complicated sometimes - in one office I worked in, tickets bought with "rolled over" winnings could only pay out to those that chipped in to buy the rolled over ticket. In other words, there were two pools - one for the regulars who bought a ticket every week and one for the people (like me) who only played when the Pool was really large (over $100 mill, say).

Due to a recent ugly dispute out here, our local lottery corporation has a group buying agreement on their website. (Whew! Ol' Mr. Freeze almost died handling that pdf. New computer soon!)

COOL! thanks you guys! I don't know if I'm going to run anything or not...people are inconsistent and I'm only doing the big ones I think.

My office does them sporadically (only on super-big jackpots), and just sends an e-mail saying who bought how much. We don't bother paying out small amounts (they just get silently rolled into the next one.)

As for protecting ourselves, the girl who runs it is incredibly excitable. We have faith that there's no possible way that she could bluff us out of a win.

As for the screwing-over, jrossi4r's method is pretty good insurance, since you can just follow along at home and track how much is won, if you feel like "the treasurer" is cheating you.

My mom used to be the treasurer for a group of women at her office - she liked it a lot and tries to organize something every time the jackpot is big.

Oh, and for simplicity, everyone's buy-in was 5 bucks a week. You could buy in 10 or 15, but none of this "I only wanna put in a quarter" or whatever.

Gentlemen, I know how anxious you've all been during these last few days, but now I think I can safely say that your time and money have been well spent. We're about to witness the greatest miracle of the machine age. Based on the revolutionary Computonian Law of Probability, this machine will tell us the precise location of the three remaining Golden Tickets.

[/punches computer buttons; reads the card it emits]

It says, "I won't tell. That would be cheating."

I am now telling the computer that, if it will tell me the correct answer, I will gladly share with it the grand prize.

[/pushes buttons; reads card]

He says, "What would a computer do with a lifetime supply of chocolate?"

I am now telling the computer exactly what he can do with a lifetime supply of chocolate..

Windfall.