Let’s Gamble One More Time

This weekend, we attended a local fundraiser, which consisted of a reverse drawing. That’s where they sell 300 tickets at $100 a piece. The holder of the last ticket drawn wins $10,000.

Usually, people start making deals when they get to the final few. They will agree to stop the drawing and split the prize money. It’s a pretty fun event when your ticket stays in the barrel for a long time. This time, we went out early, but it brought to mind a time when my ticket was in the mix.

I had bought a ticket but was not going to go. My friend, who was the emcee, took my ticket with the instructions that if I get to the final three, then he could agree to split. At the last minute, I decided to show up. I would hang around until my ticket was drawn and leave after that.

The drawing started, and people were dropping like flies. He called out numbers, and names were taken off the board. As time passed, I began to get anxious. My number was still in there somewhere. Final 100 – still there. Final 50 – still there. The crowd was thinning as names got pulled, but I still sat in the back of the room.

I began to tense as each number was called. Final 20 – still there. Final 10 – still there. Then, it got down to 5. At this point, they called those of us who were left to sit in the front. We were huddled up to see if everyone wanted to split the money at $2,000 a piece. Then, my buddy says something along the lines of – “I know one person who said he wouldn’t split until there were three left. Let’s see if he has the guts to do it.”

The others had agreed to split, but I wasn’t sure. Then, he calls me out in front of everyone. The lady next to me pleads with me to split. Her son needed the money. What was I going to do?

I said, “Let’s gamble one more time.” I couldn’t let him call me out like that.

They pulled the next number, and it was the lady who was next to me. She went back to her seat and glared at me for a while. Now, it was time to make another decision. Do I keep the $2,500, or do I go one more time? My buddy reminded everyone that my original plan was to whittle it down to three. Everyone was waiting on my decision.

I chickened out and ended it with four people left. We each won $2,500. For fun, they drew out the rest of the numbers. I would have survived one more pull. The original plan would have worked.

The lady that missed out on the money didn’t hang around. I am sure that she wasn’t very happy with me. The rest of us hung around to sign some papers, and my buddy, the emcee. says, “Hey, you know who that lady was.”

“No. Who is she?”

“She’s the one whose son got attacked by a shark and lost his leg.”

Now, I was mad and jumped all over him.

“Why didn’t you tell me who that was? I would have stopped.”

I felt terrible about it, and people kidded me about it for a long time. Actually, I still feel bad about it, but most people have forgotten. Wait, I guess I just reminded them.

Tags: Community, Fundraiser, Gambling, Reverse Drawing