If i buy a winning lottery ticket for a friend, who keeps the money?

Technically it would be you.

Morally it would be your friend.

it depends if he gave you the numbers then it's your ticket however the right thing to do would give it to him considering he gave the winning numbers in the first place however, you paid for the ticket with your own money it's your but, this decision is up to you to give the ticket to him or you keep it OR CONSIDER A THIRD PARTY LIKE I COULD TAKE OFF YOUR HANDS! LOL

Who has possession of the ticket at the time of the draw?

As pointed out above, it would be an oral agreement but the reality is that whoever has the ticket and claims the prize would likely be judged the rightful owner.

You have a legal verbal contract. You loaned him the money and bought his ticket. The ticket belongs to him. All he has to do is pay you back for the cost of the ticket as agreed.

It's hard to prove verbal contracts, so if you wanted to be a dirty lying cheat you could just say the ticket was yours. He could not prove any different. In court it would probably boil down to who had possession of the ticket.

Your friend would keep the money as the ticket would be for him. If you claimed the ticket, your friend could stop the funds and file a lawsuit etc

With the agreement between you, the ticket is your friend's. You weren't buying ticket for yourself, but loaning him funds to buy ticket for himself. If he doesn't pay you money back, then ticket is yours.

But remember what Sam Goldwyn said: "An oral agreement isn't worth the paper it's printed on."

you should split the money 3/4 for him and 1/4 for you

The person in possession of the ticket. You buying it doesn't make it yours. It doesn't matter if he ever pays you back, either. You got it for him, it's his now.

You could never in a million years prove your claim in court.

Keep the ticket.

Who needs friends anyway

Your lawyers would keep the money.

Who put up the money?