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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.

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Moments before, his daughter had asked whether they could buy Kraken gear at the arena’s team store. But between the raffle and all the concessions they’d already enjoyed that day, Barrientes finally drew a line.

“I couldn’t afford it,” he said, chuckling.

That changed in a hurry.

“She told me what the pot was, and I thought I’d get only half that,” he said of his conversation with the raffle attendant. “So, I thought I’d get about $15,000. That’s still great, considering I’d spent only $100 to get it. But then she tells me, ‘No, you won $33,000.”

“My daughter tells me, ‘We’re rich!” and I go, ‘No, no, we’re not baby,” he said, laughing. “We’re just at least not going paycheck-to-paycheck right now. I’ll tell you what, in the end, that money is nothing to sneeze at.”

Since launching the 50/50 raffle at the beginning of their second season in September 2022, a total of 102,852 people have spent just under $4 million on it.

The jackpot record is $218,150 from last season’s Jan. 1 NHL Winter Classic at T-Mobile Park. At Climate Pledge, the record is $148,510 raised during Fan Appreciation Day last April 11.

Tickets are sold at various arena locations and also by designated volunteers roaming Climate Pledge in red aprons from the pregame opening of the entry gates to fans through the end of the second period. The team expects to surpass the $4 million mark in gross proceeds on March 1, which also happens to be “Kraken Day” – celebrating the community work and connections made by the One Roof Foundation.

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Barrientes used his 50/50 winnings to buy his daughter a party with “as much ice cream as she could possibly have” to celebrate but then earmarked the rest for savings and special events. His wife just had back surgery, so he put $5,000 toward that so she “doesn’t have to stress about bills.” Another $2,000 went into a ROTH IRA for Mirra and $1,000 each into similar plans for a daughter, Khaleesi, 1, another daughter, Karina, 21, and a son, Jeremiah, 14, from a previous marriage.

He's put the rest into savings, some of which will be set aside for a future trip to Japan.

“We’ve been talking about going to Japan because we’re big anime freaks and anime fans,” he said. “So, we’d like to at least go to Japan and then check out an island or something. When I was in the military, I was in South Korea for a year and a half, so I’ve been to Japan, but my wife and kids have not, so it would be nice to finally show them a bit of my stomping grounds.”

Samantha McGregor, 53, from the Kitsap Peninsula, was among the team’s first-ever 50/50 winners, buying a $20 allotment in the second regular season game after the raffle was first introduced in 2022. She assumed it wouldn’t amount to anything and was pleasantly surprised to win just under $10,000.

“So, that was pretty great,” she said. ‘I was in a group of season ticket holders and they all think you need to buy the $100 amount to have enough chance to win anything. And I always tell them: ‘Nope! I won just buying $20 worth.’ So, now they all feel like, ‘Hey, if she can win, I can win.’ It’s a great sales point.”

McGregor used her 50/50 winnings to start funding trips to see the Kraken play on the road, going to three such matchups each of the past two years.

McGregor and her late husband, Bret, owned their tickets for the team’s first three seasons, having moved to Seattle years prior from Colorado, where he’d been a huge Avalanche fan. But after he passed away early last season at age 49, McGregor decided not to renew for this current campaign.

“It was very hard because he was my buddy going to every game with, and then all of a sudden, he’s not there anymore,” she said. “So, it just wasn’t the same.”

But McGregor found she missed the enjoyment of going to the games. So, she decided to “give back” by volunteering to sell 50/50 raffle tickets a few times a month.

“I love the work the One Roof Foundation is doing, and I love watching the “Heroes of the Deep” segments at every game,” she said. “So, this was a way for me to give back to that and also to stay involved with Kraken games. When you’re going to every game with your spouse, and then he isn’t there, it isn’t the same. But it was still nice to be a part of their games, and this is more of a fun way to do it and give back to something bigger than myself.”

Fellow raffle winner Barrientes is pleased the 50/50 draw gave him the chance to do things for others as well. Beyond the winnings and getting to spend on his family, he’ll cherish the memory of “daddy-daughter day” for a long time to come.

“This was only my second Kraken game, but I really enjoyed it,” he said. “My daughter enjoyed it, too. What type of little kid wouldn’t when they’re in an environment where they can scream their lungs out?

“So, she’s already asking me when we can go back.”