Kraken fan Ramon Barrientes has always been careful with his money, saving where he can, never gambling or buying lottery tickets and even summoning the strength to refuse his young daughter’s purchase requests when they get too big.
That daughter, Mirra, 7, happened to be with Barrientes, 40, at her very first Kraken game this month courtesy of free tickets from the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 242 guild he belongs to in his construction foreman’s job. They were having such a great time – Mirra proudly boasting to the Climate Pledge Arena gate attendant about their “daddy-daughter day” – that Barrientes admittedly felt a little “lucky” when they came upon a team volunteer selling tickets to the One Roof Foundation 50/50 Raffle, pres. by Washington’s Lottery, in $10, $20, $50 and $100 increments.
“I don’t ordinarily do this type of stuff,” Spanaway resident Barrientes said. “But my daughter was having such a good time. And I was feeling great. So I just said: ‘What the heck? I’ll take the $100 option.’”
And good thing he did. By the time the afternoon game was done, the block of 320 tickets he’d purchased for $100 had made him the largest 50/50 winner in Kraken this season – capturing a $33,000 purse.
“It blew my mind,” he said.
The concept of a 50/50 raffle has been around seemingly as long as hockey itself, a constant in arenas worldwide, where half the money collected goes to the night’s winner and the other half to a charity or community group of some sort. Kraken versions go to the team and arena’s One Roof Foundation charity arm.
Barrientes was having such a great time screaming and cheering with his daughter at the game that he didn’t even realize he’d won when the winning numbers were displayed on the arena’s twin scoreboards. But he decided to check with an attendant at a raffle kiosk just prior to exiting the building.