Court will hold on to $18 million and decide if 11 other employees have any rights to it
The $50-million lottery dispute among a group of Bell Canada call-centre employees has been partially resolved.
The winnings will be split 30 ways, with the 19 people who initially came forward to claim the Lotto Max prize at the beginning of January receiving about $1.7 million, with interest, for a total of nearly $32 million.
The remaining shares, more than $18 million, will be handed over to a court that will decide who, if any, in a second group of 11 is entitled to part of the winnings.
These 11 employees came forward after the first group claimed the winning ticket, saying they are owed a share of the winnings.
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) says the leader of the original group of 19 documented the process well, tracking who paid into the pool.
But the OLG conducted an investigation nonetheless, asking pool members how long they had been playing together and where the ticket was bought, among other questions.
The OLG is also looking into a similar situation involving 24 Bombardier employees who claimed the Jan. 28 $50-million Lotto Max prize. Other co-workers have come forward claiming they were wrongly excluded from the winnings.
