Money Moral Dilemma: Should I split my lottery winnings?

menshevik

If the numbers hadn't come up and you'd lost your stake money, would you have shared the loss and only given him back half the money you borrowed? Of course not. Buy him a drink, ask him if he has a favourite charity and split 10%, say, of your winnings between his charity and one of your own. It'll help silence any bad-mouthers at work and you may feel quite good about it yourself.

Barryfan

Why is this a dilemma? You borrowed the cash and then repaid it. If you hadn't won then your friend wouldn't have to give you the stake money back! Anyway, you don't need to broadcast your winnings, just keep it to yourself!

pollypenny

Those posters who say once you've paid the money back the winnings are your own cant be very good friends.

meknowalot-51

Your clearly losing sleep over this so i would say give them a few hundred pounds,you must have won about 20k so not a large amount to give.Plus i'm sure you'll feel better for it and have restfull nights.This is something we would have done without hessitation as your friend helped you out when asked to.Why you didn't do this in the first place shows a lot about the type of person you are.

Lunar_Eclipse

I would feel morally obligated to share, though I wonder if both choices would eat me up to a certain extent.

But I wouldn't borrow money to play the lottery.

DUTR

pollypenny wrote: »

Those posters who say once you've paid the money back the winnings are your own cant be very good friends.

Why? My friends (not good aquaintances) have other qualities beyond their financial standing, I have friends who maybe millionaires (through hard work) and some that are somewhat precarious.

scrabbly

It's your friend !!!! Don't be so mean !!!
If you won £20K give him 10% .

Tropez

While it could be argued the honest thing to do is to share it, what may also happen is that the friend tells other people about the win and before you know it the news has spread, the sob stories are coming in, including from people the winner has never even met, and everybody is angling for a piece of it.

My mum had an anecdote about someone who won a modest amount on the pools and for whatever reason their picture was in the local paper. One year later they no longer had their winnings because they had to spend it on a new house due to all the harassment of people wanting handouts.

So, honestly, I'd say make sure your friend gets something but don't make it obvious that it came from a lottery win. Any sort of sudden good fortune is best kept quiet, unless you have a particular interest in being the local celebrity.

If it were me, I'd "win" other competitions as means of return. For example, perhaps this friend has always wanted to visit Las Vegas and you happen to "win" a trip there in the next couple of months?

A bit devious and dishonest, yes, but also a lot safer for someone who would want their win kept quiet and stress free.