Sharing isn’t always caring when it comes to cold, hard cash. A 22-year-old man scored $25,000 in scratch-off lottery winnings at his family’s white elephant exchange. However, he’s keeping every penny for himself… not even the gift giver themselves gets a cut.
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In a Reddit post, the man explains that the gift exchange happened at his home during a recent family Christmas party with about 25 attendees.
He shares that his family uses a dice-based white elephant gift exchange where participants can trade gifts. This sometimes means some people end up with multiple gifts while others get none. During the game, his gifts ranged from a space heater, windshield wipers, a 20-pound gummy bear, and a $50 Starbucks gift card.
However, his cousin ended up with $50 worth of lottery tickets. Not being a Starbucks fan, he decided to trade the gift card for the tickets instead.
Later, as he scratched off the lottery tickets, he discovered he was $25,000 richer.
“For a second, I thought they were fake, but my Grandma (82F), who bought them, wouldn’t do that. I sat in my room for a bit and decided to keep quiet about it, knowing how some family members might react,” he wrote in the post. “I thought about how to tell them throughout the party when they asked [if I won], I said no and that I threw them out.”
The Lottery Winner Makes a Rookie Mistake
The day after the party, the man made the rookie mistake of confessing the truth to his mom and inviting her along to cash the ticket. Naturally, she spilled the beans to his brother, who wasted no time snapping photos of him making it rain as he collected his winnings.
Of course, the damning snapshots of the big winner made the rounds with the entire family.
“An hour passes and I’m pulled into a group chat of people from the party plus family members that couldn’t make it. I said I’d give everyone who came to the party $250 … For 30ish people that attended, that’s $7,500 right there. I felt that was fair,” the beleaguered winner wrote.
The family members who missed the party insisted they shouldn’t be left out, while others chimed in with, $250 was chump change.
“After about 30 minutes of arguing, I was pi**ed and gave up negotiating. I told everyone that I’m sorry that they’re not happy with their white elephant gifts this year and that the rule was that all trades are final,” the Reddit poster added.
He kept all the money, setting aside $15,000 in a savings account and investing the remainder.
“Many of my family members are still upset with me, even as far as calling me cruel and heartless. I told them that if $250 isn’t enough from a $100 limit, they’re the selfish ones,” he insisted. He also noted that none of his family are hard up for cash.
Reddit Users Weigh in on the White Elephant Lottery Winner Keeping His Winnings
Meanwhile, Reddit users weighed in on the ethics of White Elephant-style games.
“That is why my personal rule is I never give out lottery tickets as any sort of gift. Because if you lose, people are like haha. You got nothing for your gift. If you win, everybody wants a piece of it,” one user pointed out.
“A cousin gave my husband a lottery ticket for his birthday and he signed the back of it so my husband would have to share if it was a big winner. I thought that was pretty tacky,” another user shared.
“I feel like white elephant is a crazy American thing, and I never understand it at all. It’s mean and cruel and completely destroys goodwill. It’s like, let’s play a game that can destroy relationships and cause hatred for years,” yet another user chimed in.