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March 28, 2024, 06:53:49 PM

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We have a winner

Started by eagle_bearer, October 11, 2021, 04:49:48 PM

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eagle_bearer

It doesn't seem to happen nowadays, but does anyone remember those discs in a cardboard sleeve you used to get in newspapers which contained software for an hours free play at an online casino? Most people usually chuck that stuff in the bin. 'It's a scam', they say. 'The disc would be more use as a coaster or as part of a mobile to put above my baby's cot.'

Now, as I'll explain in more detail later on, these things usually are a waste of time and the disc would be better used as a coaster or as part of a mobile above a baby's cot. Thankfully, I don't use coasters and I don't have a baby, so I popped one of these discs in my computer back in 2008, and a couple of hours later, I'd won £6000. Kerching!

I won't name the online casino (I'm not their PR!), but I installed the software, started my hours free play and played video poker. There is a slither of skill to this game in so much as knowing which hands are which, knowing what to hold etc, but it's mostly luck because you aren't playing against other people. I was cock-a-hoop at the end of the hour to have won about £500. Jackpot! Not a bad for an hours' worth of clicking a mouse.

Alas, and this is why these ventures are often a waste of time, there is a dreaded thing I was unaware of at the time called 'playthrough'. This is the snag. The small print. The devil in the detail. You have to play through your winnings a certain amount of times before you can withdraw. If you win £500 and the playthrough is, say, x10, you have to gamble £5000! More often than not, you'd lose the £500 trying to do that. No longer was I cock-a-hoop; more like cock-a-droop.

But I played on. May as well, I thought. Not my money anyway. And through more luck, in playing through the £500, I ended up with £6000. The big boost was when I got a royal flush, boosting my money from about £400 to around £10000, which meant I now had the leeway to hit the original playthrough amount and still come out with around £6000.

Another good thing I won was in Blackpool in 1999. I was really into Batman and I won a Batman soft toy from a grabber after only three attempts.

Anyway, that's enough from me. What about you guys? What's the best thing you've ever won? Maybe it wasn't a lump sum; maybe you won a prize that meant something to you. Perhaps you won two tickets to the World Cup final. Perhaps you won a cuddly teddy from a carnival and gave it to your spouse when you were courting.

Buelligan

I have a Dutch friend whose (now) ex-husband gambled away their jointly owned business and home and all their savings, including money for their son's college and left her unemployed and in serious debt but she won back her freedom from him eventually.  Maybe some of that £6000 belonged to her once.

Johnny Foreigner

I once won a book from a Dutch radio station to which I had submitted a short story.
I think I've also won a few bottles of wine at general knowledge / pub quizzes over the years.

...oh yes, I distinctly remember winning a packet of biscuits. They were Penguins.

kalowski

I won a bottle of cheap whiskey at a tombola when I was 16 and at some sort of Christmas do. They gave it me, I took it to my table of mates and we got utterly legless.
I am amazed I can still drink whiskey after that.

thenoise

I won a big pack of homemade mince pies and one of those heavy fruit cakes with almonds in a pretty pattern on top, at a Christmas raffle circa 2015. Pretty skint at the time so I was after all the free mince pies I could get, was well chuffed with that.

Later me and my wife won a little cushion with  "HOME" written on it, which still sits on our comfy chair.

Never gambled for money, never payed lottery, never done a scratch card other than the ones that used to drop out of the Radio Times.

Frank Stallone

Had quite a good run winning local things, tickets to events and the like. Saw the almighty RATT and Ace Frehley that way, had to sell some tickets for the 'iHeart Radio Jingle Ball' I won through my local arenas 12 Days of Christmas promotion, but had to sell them the day of because my dog got sick. Listed them for something like $200 and they sold in seconds. My wife won 'puck for a buck' at the hockey (NHL), which is just a raffle for a signed puck but the production crew come to your seat and you're on the jumbotron and it's good silly fun. That's a great memory for sure. She also won $1,000 on a lotto scratchcard which was awesome for sure.

SpiderChrist

I won a signed copy of the first Smiths album on a local radio phone in. Er, that's it I think.

checkoutgirl

Won a couple of small poker tournaments in my local in the village I grew up in. Not more that 250 squid total winnins.

Blue Jam

Won a ludicrous amount of pointless crap from claw machines/grabbers/UFO catchers when I lived in Japan. Those things are a game of skill over there and I became quite proud of my cuddly toy-snatching abilities. Was very disappointed when I returned to the UK and was reminded that the glass boxes full of dusty, unclaimed and unwinnable prizes we have in arcades over here are all rigged.

Also won £90 on one small snooker bet. Lost a few since but have still won far more than I have spent at the bookies in a lifetime, mainly by being a gambling wuss and having tiny limits.

Been in a casino once in my life but only because they had a really good restaurant upstairs. Had to provide ID and sign a legal disclaimer and become a full member of the casino even though I only ever intended to bypass the tables entirely for a nice bit of seabass.

touchingcloth

A car hire place in Portugal advertised that they were giving away a free week's rental on a car for a lucky new twitter follower. I signed up for loads of accounts most of which were named "Free Car" in a variety of languages - Carro Grátis, Voiture Gratuite, Kostenloses Auto. I won the competition, but somehow with the account I made under the name of Eugene Victor Tooms.

There was a caravan competition for bullet soul infinite burst when it launched on steam.

There are 4 different playable characters with separate leaderboards for the caravan stage and they were going to give a prize to the person who came top for each.

Some guy stormed it and came top for like 3 different characters so they gave prizes to the second place players too to make up for this.

I was just in it for the shits and giggles, but I had to end up paying postage from Japan and what came was an "I am a cartoon nonce" poster with a little squiggle signature in the corner.



"That's not going on my fucking wall" I thought and it's been collecting dust in my cupboard ever since.

Oh, and I won a copy of eschatos on the 360 in the shmup junkie caravan contest earlier this year, but I already had the game on 360 and gave it away to an internet buddy since it was out on pc now and I just played it on there, so it went to some other guy instead.

I won a raffle once when i was little. A toshiba T-shirt with that robot lad on the front saying "hello tosh, got a toshiba?" and some aftershave. I gave the shirt to my sister because it was too big and the aftershave to my dad because I had no use for that.

Have won a few things in pub quizzes. Won a large slab of Tennents Lager which the rest of the team 'generously' allowed me to take, and I ended up just gradually giving it away as I walked through Glasgow city centre to the railway station as it was too unwieldy to carry. That night I was a God of Lager, dispensing amber nectar to the thirsty hordes.

Won a few raffle prizes - mostly rubbish, but did win a nice woollen scarf that I still have.

I used to fill in the Littlewoods football pools coupon when I was a kid (obviously it wasn't entered in my own name). I used to pore over the football league tables and form guide in the newspaper trying to work out whether some game between Mansfield and York City or whoever might end in the magical 1-1 scoreline that would score the maximum three points if you had it on your coupon. When the weather was bad and the pools panel had to step in with their verdicts on postponed matches it was a total shitshow.  Needless to say, we never won the jackpot.

mothman

I won a couple of Hammer Horror vids signed by Christopher Lee. Dracula: Prince of Darkness, and Rasputin: The Mad Monk.

Blue Jam

I clean forgot that greencalx, dr beat and myself once won an Alan Partridge-themed pub quiz by a frankly embarrassing margin. The winner of each individual round got a bonus prize of a Terry's Chocolate Orange or a Toblerone and we ended up winning all but one round and redistributing our prizes among the other teams. Everyone was a winner that night. A-HA!

Quote from: eagle_bearer on October 11, 2021, 04:49:48 PM
It doesn't seem to happen nowadays, but does anyone remember those discs in a cardboard sleeve you used to get in newspapers which contained software for an hours free play at an online casino? Most people usually chuck that stuff in the bin. 'It's a scam', they say. 'The disc would be more use as a coaster or as part of a mobile to put above my baby's cot.'

Now, as I'll explain in more detail later on, these things usually are a waste of time and the disc would be better used as a coaster or as part of a mobile above a baby's cot. Thankfully, I don't use coasters and I don't have a baby, so I popped one of these discs in my computer back in 2008, and a couple of hours later, I'd won £6000. Kerching!

I won't name the online casino (I'm not their PR!), but I installed the software, started my hours free play and played video poker. There is a slither of skill to this game in so much as knowing which hands are which, knowing what to hold etc, but it's mostly luck because you aren't playing against other people. I was cock-a-hoop at the end of the hour to have won about £500. Jackpot! Not a bad for an hours' worth of clicking a mouse.

Alas, and this is why these ventures are often a waste of time, there is a dreaded thing I was unaware of at the time called 'playthrough'. This is the snag. The small print. The devil in the detail. You have to play through your winnings a certain amount of times before you can withdraw. If you win £500 and the playthrough is, say, x10, you have to gamble £5000! More often than not, you'd lose the £500 trying to do that. No longer was I cock-a-hoop; more like cock-a-droop.

But I played on. May as well, I thought. Not my money anyway. And through more luck, in playing through the £500, I ended up with £6000. The big boost was when I got a royal flush, boosting my money from about £400 to around £10000, which meant I now had the leeway to hit the original playthrough amount and still come out with around £6000.

Another good thing I won was in Blackpool in 1999. I was really into Batman and I won a Batman soft toy from a grabber after only three attempts.

Anyway, that's enough from me. What about you guys? What's the best thing you've ever won? Maybe it wasn't a lump sum; maybe you won a prize that meant something to you. Perhaps you won two tickets to the World Cup final. Perhaps you won a cuddly teddy from a carnival and gave it to your spouse when you were courting.

Did they actually pay out then?  Amazing if so, i figured they always found loop holes not to.  Also why did you need a cd to play online?

Jittlebags

I always dreamt about winning a meat raffle. Never happened.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

I helped my pub quiz team in Cambodia ( Dead Kennedys consider, ah fuck it) win the jackpot of 100 dollars by knowing the answer to the question " What was the first language spoken on That Skype we have nowadays? " ours was the only team what got that answer right, so we won by a point ( the answers Estonian,  ' cos Skype was invented there, y'see) . That Russian lass I used to quite like sent a Facebook message offering hearty congratulations. It was a grand night.

eagle_bearer

Quote from: Mrs Wogans lemon drizzle on October 11, 2021, 09:49:06 PM
Did they actually pay out then?  Amazing if so, i figured they always found loop holes not to.  Also why did you need a cd to play online?

Yes, I did receive the money. 99% of the time you would have lost any money won during the free hour having to fulfil the playthrough requirements. I was just very lucky. The CD was attached to a newspaper. You didn't actually need it to play. You could have downloaded the casino software from the website.

Blue Jam

Quote from: Jittlebags on October 11, 2021, 09:50:13 PM
I always dreamt about winning a meat raffle. Never happened.

Daniel Kitson held a meat raffle when I saw him at The Stand during the Embra Fringe a few years back. He did warn the audience that the meat may not have been kept below 4°C at all times since it was purchased and that it may no longer be fit for human consumption so I wasn't sad at not winning.

Icehaven

I won an 80s compilation CD in a 6Music phone-in competition about 15 years ago. It was Gideon Coe I spoke to but it turned out it was usually Phil Jupitus's show and Coe was standing in for him, so when my prize turned up it came with a signed photo of Jupitus that I'd neither expected nor wanted.

Mortimer

Gradually accumulated winnings of several £thousands over a few years on football betting, then forced to stop when all my bookie accounts were either closed or limited over the course of a few months. They all proudly advertise that they don't close winning accounts, but they do. Oh, the bastards definitely do.

Jittlebags

Quote from: Blue Jam on October 11, 2021, 10:00:57 PM
Daniel Kitson held a meat raffle when I saw him at The Stand during the Embra Fringe a few years back. He did warn the audience that the meat may not have been kept below 4°C at all times since it was purchased and that it may no longer be fit for human consumption so I wasn't sad at not winning.

No one died from warm meat surely?

I won Disgusting Bliss:The Brass Eye Of Chris Morris and a Day Today DVD on this forum.

buttgammon

Quote from: Blue Jam on October 11, 2021, 09:42:55 PM
I clean forgot that greencalx, dr beat and myself once won an Alan Partridge-themed pub quiz by a frankly embarrassing margin. The winner of each individual round got a bonus prize of a Terry's Chocolate Orange or a Toblerone and we ended up winning all but one round and redistributing our prizes among the other teams. Everyone was a winner that night. A-HA!

My partner and I won an Alan Partridge quiz that was hosted by Simon Greenall. The prize was a stack of crockery that was pilfered from a hotel which Michael the Geordie himself signed for us. They're sat in a bin bag on top of my kitchen cabinets.

flotemysost

I won a cheap plastic bubble watch that contained a lion figurine suspended in liquid, from RSPCA Animal Action magazine when I was nine or ten. Never been prouder.

Ferris

Quote from: Jittlebags on October 11, 2021, 09:50:13 PM
I always dreamt about winning a meat raffle. Never happened.

They still do them in rural Nova Scotia. It's Hills Have Eyes stuff out there.

I won a $100 gift card for doing a survey once, spent it on some warm socks and a hat (which I still have actually; it's a good hat) so there you go.

Blue Jam

Quote from: buttgammon on October 14, 2021, 04:19:39 PM
My partner and I won an Alan Partridge quiz that was hosted by Simon Greenall. The prize was a stack of crockery that was pilfered from a hotel which Michael the Geordie himself signed for us. They're sat in a bin bag on top of my kitchen cabinets.

No 12" plate then?

Well jel. Seriously.

Ferris

I would also love to turn up and monster the opposition in an Alan partridge pub quiz.

Never gonna happen (in the near future)

:(

Blue Jam

Don't they have a Trailer Park Boys quiz near you Ferris?

Might be too easy when the answer to every question is "Fuck off Lahey".

Quote from: ImmaculateClump on October 11, 2021, 09:38:32 PM
There was a caravan competition for bullet soul infinite burst when it launched on steam.

There are 4 different playable characters with separate leaderboards for the caravan stage and they were going to give a prize to the person who came top for each.

Some guy stormed it and came top for like 3 different characters so they gave prizes to the second place players too to make up for this.

I was just in it for the shits and giggles, but I had to end up paying postage from Japan and what came was an "I am a cartoon nonce" poster with a little squiggle signature in the corner.



"That's not going on my fucking wall" I thought and it's been collecting dust in my cupboard ever since.

I'd suggest binning or selling it. I won a Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball calendar (runners up prize in a competition where you could win an Xbox) which I just chucked in a drawer. Fast forward 8 years and I'm packing boxes to move in with my partner and she finds my Tecmo Weebnonce book and starts asking all sorts of questions.

Imagine carking it and having a relative find that and thinking "shit, he was a paedophile". Don't need that shit. Get rid.