I’ve won $500 off a scratch off lottery ticket and $50 in a high school lottery. Other than that, not much else.
What have you won?
Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to help Mom with the dishes.-P.J. O’Rourke
I won 21 days of air travel once from a radio station. My wife and I (we were newlyweds) planned this big trip all over the country and then figured out we couldn’t afford the hotel bills, etc. (The prize was just the airline tickets.) So we turned in the tickets for cash and bought a pickup truck.
“Finally, consider Kottke’s voice which sounds like geese farts on a muggy day.”
Leo Kottke
6- And 12-String Guitar
The first time I ever got a scratch lotto ticket I won 20$
Two years ago I went to Lousiana to go gambling for the first time; I won 120$ overall. I would have won more, but the second casino we went to took 80$ from me. 
Of my winnings, 50$ came from one try on the slot machines…about 15 tries later I won 15$.
You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.
As a semi-professional gambler, I’ve won a lot. But never a lottery or a slot jackpot or anything like that, because I won’t spend a nickel on a game in which I don’t have the edge.
When my wife and I got married, we went through a bit of a ‘lucky’ streak. A friend gave us two tickets to a party at a local bar. We went in for all of five minutes before deciding to leave because we didn’t like the disco music. As we were about to leave, they made a big drawing of all ticket holders, and we won $500.
A couple of months later, we went to a home show and my wife filled out a free ticket for a draw and we won two airline tickets to Florida. When we got back, we entered another free draw a month or two after that and won a microwave oven.
I’ve won more than a few $$$ in Vegas and Wendover, NV. I once won almost $4000.00 on roulette with someone else’s money (the psychopathic, pro-wrestler, ex-boyfriend, and yes - I kept the winnings) It is amazing how brave you can be when it isn’t your own hard earned dough.
Last year I clicked on the Yahoo icon that said “Christmas in July” and won the Grand Prize of $1000.00 gift certificate for a toy company. Came in very handy for Christmas.
>^,^<
KITTEN
Coffee, chocolate, men . . . Some things are just better rich.
I’ve done pretty well in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. But the biggest thing I ever won was my home computer system, in a Chinese Auction: in 11/95, I won a Pentium-90 with 16 MB of Ram, a 1GB hard drive, a 2.88 modem, Soundblaster, speakers, 8x CD-ROM, HP DeskJet 600, as well as MS Win95 & Office 95 and a desk, printer cart and chair.
So yeah, I’ve been pretty lucky.
Chaim Mattis Keller
ckeller@schicktech.com
“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective
I won tickets to a Wallflowers concert off the radio last August. It was kinda cool because the concert was on our 9th wedding anniversary.
Most common question I ask: “What?”
Most common question I get: “Are you really hearing impaired?”
Not counting small lottery tickets and Las Vegas (a net loss), I won a camera in a raffle when I was 8, a TV set in a raffle when I was 17, and in 1997 I won a Sony WebTV in one of those “look under the cap” games, I think it was Oceanspray fruit juice (yes, somebody does win those things!). I gave it to my brother, and his family is still using it.
TT
“Believe those who seek the truth.
Doubt those who find it.” --Andre Gide
I’ve done pretty well with contests over the years.
Among the winnings: nice pair of shoes, 2 teddy bears, 13 inch color TV, sports team jacket, perm, 10 baseball tickets, 4 circus tickets, painting supplies, 2 tickets to see the group Alabama, assorted smaller prizes.
Best advice: follow the rules, enter multiple times if possible, enter everything you can. Smaller local contests give you the best chance of winning.
I also won a radio contest (prize -lunch for 15 people in my office) by knowing the artist who recorded the albums “Trout Mask Replica” and “Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)”.
I won $700 on a $2 bet once at jai-alai.
A few months ago I got a phone call saying I was a finalist in a drawing for a minivan and I was already guaranteed a winner of my choice of 2 prizes. I can’t remember what all the choices were, but I picked $500 cash and a big screen tv. I was told I’d have to come to such and such an address at such and such a time to collect them and to attend the drawing. When they were verifying my name and address, they asked if I was between the ages of 26 and 35, or something like that. Well, I wasn’t. I was still a few months from my 26th birthday. So I was instantly disqualified from collecting any of the prizes.
That’s the kind of luck I have.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
$20,000, which I won in a slot tournament at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas this summer. I found the whole episode deliciously ironic, because
(1) I hate slot machines, and only entered because it was a cheap way to get to Las Vegas (about $500 for air travel, board, and meals).
(2) I had just turned 21, so was half the age of the next youngest participant, everyone else being over 40.
(3) Before the trip my mother and her boyfriend constantly boasted they were going to win, as they had plunked thousands of dollars in other slot machines in previous trips and thus were “due.”
Yes, when I walked up on stage to collect the grand prize it was truly a moment to be savored. I’ll never forget the expressions on their faces.
Wait–make that $20,365. Forgot to include the money I won playing blackjack 
I won some albums from a radio station.Didn’t like them,tho…
Call me cynical, but that sounds like a scam…
Don’t feel bad, Gr8Kat; your experience sounds like the standard come-on for a time share vacation sales pitch. They make you show up at a hotel somewhere, then make you sit through a long, boring sales spiel, then, for one reason or another, you don’t qualify for your “prize”, or there are endless “requirements” (i.e., more sales pitches) before you “qualify”. Been there, done that; you didn’t miss a thing.
TT
“Believe those who seek the truth.
Doubt those who find it.” --Andre Gide
I thought about that, but it was kind of a piss-poor scam if that’s what it was. What kind of scam doesn’t at least get you to send in sign up fees or something before jerking the rug out from under you? Actually, it sounds like it would be kind of a funny practical joke, except that it was done to me 
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
In case it wasn’t clear in my first post, I was still on the telephone having my information verified when they told me I was disqualified. I think they said it was supposed to be a publicity stunt for a new store’s grand opening, but turned out I wasn’t in the age range for their target consumer or something. So I wasn’t screwed out of anything, I was just jerked around from the comfort of my own home.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
I won $465.00 playing bingo.
My dad has all the luck in the family, though. He bought a Pepsi once, won a free Pepsi, won a free Pepsi from that bottle, won a free Pepsi from THAT bottle, and won a free Pepsi from THAT bottle.
– Sylence
“The problem with reality is the lack of background music.” – Anon
I’ve never won anything significant but I did have the luck to get a scholarship from my university that I get every year I attend here. It was one of the largest at awards night in HS with the sum of $1,500 US.I actually thought it was a one time deal but nope, i’ve been getting it for the past two years, and it pays for half of my tuition (I live at home so that deals with room, board, and food).
Gr8kat: It does sound like a pitch for a timeshare. And they actually do give away some pretty good stuff there, because they can afford to. Their sales pitch is so good that they hook a high percentage of people into buying if they can get them into the ‘presentation’. And these things are so wildly profitable that if they sell just one they can pay for all the freebies they gave away that day.
Timeshare companies will spend a LOT on you if you are in the demographic range. There are ones around here that will give you an all-expense weekend at the Banff Lodge, all meals, and a couple of hundred bucks in spending money, just for attending their presentation. My wife and I went to one in Florida, and they gave us $100 for attending, and then offered to fly us down to Ft. Lauderdale for a free weekend stay in one of the units. And they are very nice units, with hot tubs on the balcony etc. That’s part of the hook. They are so nice that you really, really want to buy. But it’s a gigantic ripoff.