If you’re a fan of online casino games, you’ll be used to standard prizes like cash, credits or bonus points. If you’ve tried your hand at some other games, though, you might have won something that you weren’t expecting – which could be a good or a bad thing, depending on what it is!
We thought it would be fun to look outside of the regular cash prizes you’ll find at the best online casinos in the USA and have a laugh – or grimace – at some of the most unusual prizes that have ever been won in a competition.
The unusual prizes
These are some of the strange rewards people who didn’t play real money casino games have received through various regular (and not-so-regular) competitive activities.
Trophy stone
You’d think that after winning an intensive uphill cycle race you might be given something a little bit lighter. But yes, as bizarre as it might sound, the winner of the Paris-Roubaix bicycle race in northern France takes home a trophy in the form of a large granite cube weighing over 26lbs! We think we’ll stick to online casino slots.
Grandfather clock
We’re not sure what the tie-in between NASCAR racing and antiquated time-keeping pieces is, but we guess it’s got something to do with making it across the finish line in good time. Either way, a grandfather clock is a pretty bizarre prize for the event held at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia and one that is probably a challenge to get home. What happened to the usual shiny trophy and exuberant champagne spraying?
Wheel of cheese
It’s surprising what people will do to win a wheel of cheese, even if it means racing others precariously downhill in the annual Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake in England. Unlike the simplicity of rolling the reels in real casino slots online, this competition only has one winner – the person who can grab hold of an entire wheel of Double Gloucester cheese as it (and they) roll down the embankment.
At least this prize offers more than just something to put on your mantelpiece and can be enjoyed for lunch!
Your wife’s weight in beer
In the sport of wife-carrying, also known as “eukonkanto” in Finnish, a man must carry his wife through a course in the fastest time possible. The minimum weight of the wife is 108lbs. If she is lighter, the husband will have to augment her weight with a weighted backpack to ensure fair competition.
While the prizes vary from competition to competition, the World Championships offer the winner their wife’s weight in beer. Beer lovers will likely agree that this is an unusual prize, but you won’t hear them complaining about it.
Live goat
With a range of great prizes, lottery and game show-style gambling titles are some of the best casino games to play online. But this isn’t always the case for real-world game shows. Although contestants might have been expecting something a little offbeat when going on the show Let’s Make a Deal – thanks to the already crazy and attention-seeking costumes in the audience – we don’t think anyone expected to take home a goat!
The “zonk” is the prank prize or trade item that forms part of this game’s premise to trade with the host. The whole point of the game is for the contestant to choose between two unknown prizes, although we’re sure that livestock might have been what they least anticipated as one of the choices.
We don’t know about you, but we think the prizes you might win playing live dealer online casino games or casino slot games sound much more appealing!
$10,000 fish bowl
Near the end of this list of weird prizes is an ultra-expensive fish bowl that was one of the prizes on a 1980 episode of the show High Rollers.
To give the item its due, it was an antique Chinese fishbowl (which seems like the kind of thing you’d find in a vault of hidden treasures,) which explains why it was worth so much money. But in the days before online auctions, getting stuck with this expensive object after winning must have been quite an anticlimax. At least it must have been fun to roll the giant dice that the game show was famous for!
Cuddly pink hippo
If you’ve ever dreamed of hitting a real bullseye when playing darts (and enjoying a bit of quiz action,) you would love to have been a contestant on the popular 1980s British game show Bullseye.
You might have expected to win something a little more valuable than a stuffed pink hippo toy, but who are we to judge? Perhaps this plush pachyderm was someone’s idea of the perfect prize or addition to their bedroom!
An entire Pacific resort
This is definitely an unusual prize, even if it is a reward with which most people would be happy. The Guardian reported how Australian owners Doug and Sally Beitz developed a resort in Micronesia in 1994. After 12 years of managing the business, they decided to get rid of their luxury property. However, they didn’t just want to sell it. They decided it would be a nice prize for someone who wasn’t rich enough to buy the property. To choose who would become the new owner, they sold $49 raffle tickets and live-streamed the raffle event on Facebook. An Australian man named Joshua walked away as the brand new owner of the debt-free and profitable luxury resort.
While this kind of prize is certainly unbelievably rare, the rest of us can still enjoy the chance of winning when visiting a casino resort (though obviously, we wouldn’t be winning the resort itself!)
Know what prizes are up for grabs at BetMGM
You don’t need to visit the cities with the best gambling culture to take home great prizes. At BetMGM, you can play casino games for real money at our virtual casino. Whether you prefer to play online slots or bluff, hit or stand your way through various casino table games, there is only one prize you can win and that’s cash (or credits.) But no matter what you win, you’ll always find the best games to play at our casino.
Register to play and learn more about our wide range of offerings.
