The High Court has recently heard the testimony of David Walsh, son of Peter Walsh who won the Irish Lotto's €3,38 million jackpot. Mary Walsh, David's step-mother, is accused of withholding his €560,000 share of the Syndicate's win. David claims that on the day of 23 January 2011, his father told him to sign the back of the lottery ticket.
David stated that his father said: He “told me I’d have nothing to worry about for the rest of my life”.
According to him, David says that Mary had in fact been standing within earshot of the conversation and that she had even witnessed him signing the back of the ticket. David says that the members of the family syndicate are Peter Walsh, cousin Kevin Black, Mary Walsh, and her sons Anthony and Jason Daly. He went further to state that Mary had not at the time claimed to be the rightful owner of the ticket.
Mary is recorded as having said that she was advised by a member of the National Lottery to get each member of the family to sign the Irish Lotto ticket in order to avoid having to pay gift tax. This in itself "is a breach of the criminal law,” according to Senator Humphreys.
“I have contacted the Revenue in relation to this and they have told me that they will be engaging counsel to attend the case," he said.
“If this advice was indeed given, there are questions to be answered by the National Lottery. The National Lottery does not provide professional financial advice directly to our winners but recommends they seek appropriate and independent advice."
In any event, Mary's claims that David had been given the choice of either receiving €200,000 up front, or the Knocknagreena home of which his father and Mary lived. The home at the time was said to be worth €135,000. David denies these claims.
After the win, Peter and Mary purchased a new home and had subsequently transferred to David in addition to the expected one-sixth portion of the win. Mary says that she, herself, bought the ticket and was the rightful owner. It was upon her visit to the National Lottery that she was advised to get her family to sign the ticket in order to avoid tax.
David stated that he stayed home with his ailing father while Mary had produced the winning ticket. This, according to him, was the reason he did not have his name on the back of the ticket. Mary feels adamant that should David be awarded a portion of the Lotto winnings, it would fly in the face of justice as he had already been given the house.
Whatever the case, David played the lotto online, joined an online syndicate and won, there would be irrefutable proof that he was, in fact, the rightful heir to his share.
A Syndicate allows players to play from a multitude of lottery games or even just one, but the ticket prices are shared and it allows each player to play more. A "Syndicate Share" is what we commonly refer to as a "share". It refers to an individual's portion of the greater sum and total cost price of a ticket purchased by a Syndicate. A "shareholder" can expect to collect his or her portion which is equal to that of the rest of the members of the Syndicate group.
Lottotime offers all of our players the benefit of joining a syndicate and increasing their chances of winning.