Oilers fan discovered 50/50 win too late
Single dad is hoping community foundation can make an exception
EDMONTON When Clayton Hinkey realized he was holding the winning 50/50 raffle ticket from Sunday’s Oilers game, the nearly $68,000 prize seemed to good to be true.
It was.
“I (went from) dancing around to absolutely dejected failure within 30 minutes,” Hinkey said.
The single dad from Sedgewick took his four-year-old son Roscoe to the game against the Buffalo Sabres as a birthday present. When Roscoe began fidgeting and crying a few minutes into the second period, he knew it was time to leave.
The volunteer who sold him the ticket told him he could check the result later online. He didn’t know he had less than two days to do it.
He remembered to check his number Thursday and found it was the winner, so he called the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation to claim his prize. It was too late. The rules say winners must step forward by 4 p.m. two business days after the game. Until the rules changed in January 2015, winners had just 10 minutes to snag the money.
Calgary Flames fans have up to 30 days to claim their 50/50 draw winnings.
Hinkey said someone at the Oilers’ foundation office told him his situation fell into a “grey area” and the organization would have to discuss the situation with the provincial regulator, the Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission.
Working as an information technology specialist, Hinkey said he’s not destitute, but he could really use the money. He posted on the Oilers’ Facebook page about his missed brush with wealth, prompting supporters to call on the foundation to cough up the cash.
“I don’t want to pretend like I’m the saddest guy on Earth, that I’m the most deserving of all time,” he said. “It would be super, duper awesome, and I would jump around and it would really help right now. I’m resigned to the fact that I might have screwed this one up.”
He’d consider giving half to charity after covering his debts.
Hinkey gets to about one Oilers game a year, and always buys a raffle ticket, because he knows local non-profit organizations benefit from the proceeds.
Oilers Entertainment Group spokesman Tim Shipton said in an email Friday the team was consulting with the gaming commission.
“Once we have gone through that due diligence, we’ll be in a position to comment,” Shipton wrote.
I (went from) dancing around to absolutely dejected failure within 30 minutes.