I wish I could figure out how to link to another thread quickly, but until then…a comment made in another thread that mentioned a baby pool (buy a chance on when the baby will be born) expressed surprise that the winner kept the money. Half of the proceeds go to the parent-to-be, and half go to the winner of the pool, but this person seemed to think it was traditional that the winner give the half they won to the parent-to-be also.
This reminded me of the first time I had ever heard of a 50-50 raffle. I was attending a Homecoming football game after moving back to my hometown, and we were experiencing some financial difficulties. At the game they were holding a 50-50 raffle to support the marching band, so I bought a chance for a few dollars instead of buying a hot dog. Throughout the evening they would annonce how big the pot was getting, and I would daydream about what I would do with my half if I won…you know, buy the kids winter jackets, pay the car insurance, stock up the freezer…wild and crazy, I know, but hey! Of course I didn’t win, but the person who did (who was quite well-off, might I add) gave his winnings back as a donation. I commented to a friend that that was very generous of him to do, but he didn’t really need the money anyhow. She told me that it was EXPECTED that you accept the half-pot and then donate all of it back.
“All of it?” I asked. “So if I had won, I woudn’t have been allowed to keep even half of my winnings?”
“Oh, you could keep it, but you’d be gently pressured (politely informed about the expectation) and if you didn’t give it back, you’d be regarded as cheap and looked down upon, snubbed even.”
I was stunned. Is this the expectation in your experience? Why not just ask for donations, or have a true raffle instead, where you have an item (usualy donated) that you buy chances on, and the organization keeps all the cash?
Our son goes to Catholic School. One of the fundraisers they have is the “50-50 Club”. You pay $10 a month in “dues”. Once a month there is a raffle, with 50% of the monthly dues going to the school and the rest being paid out as prize money. As far as I know, nobody has ever been pressured to donate their winnings. When they want your money, they are very good at asking for it up front.
Wow, that’s pretty lame. It looks like they’re profiting from the fact that people don’t know what’s expected of them - I’m sure they’d get a lot fewer people buying raffle tickets if they knew they would have to choose between giving up the prize money and being shunned.
I read about a bachelor party once where both the proceeds from the raffle AND the “prizes” were supposed to go to the couple, but that’s the only place I’ve heard of this sort of thing before.
The only time I’ve seen it is when the boss wins. The guy with the most money usually throws it back in but a lot of times they draw another ticket. If its expected of me the give back the money then I ain’t giving any.
I think the person whom the OP talked to, who was well known in the community to be well off, might’ve been regarded by some as cheap if he didn’t donate his winnings back, but the OP, who wasn’t well known to be well off, would’ve been contgratulated for his good luck and there would not have been any repercussions if he kept the money.
These 50-50 things are typically a way to raise money for some worthy cause. So people who buy tickets are usually motivated by some combination of the following two motives:
(A) I’d like to contribute to this worthy cause.
(B) It’d be nice to win some extra cash.
If your motivation is entirely (A), and you end up winning, you might well give back your winnings. But this, in my experience, is the exception, not the rule.
The only time the winner might be expected or obliged to give back his winnings is if he’s involved in the organization that’s running the raffle, or otherwise related to the rafflers. Then it might look suspicious for him to walk away with the winnings.