Because every small-town pub, rugby club, RSA and working men\u2019s club in the country understands one simple truth \u2013 nobody walks through the door specifically for the meat raffle. <\/p>\n
Yet somehow, by the time the tickets start getting sold, everybody suddenly becomes deeply emotionally invested in winning a tray of sausages.<\/p>\n
This includes the vegetarian, who has absolutely no idea what they\u2019d do with the meat if they won, but has been swept up in the tsunami of excitement and now finds themselves quietly thinking, \u201cWell \u2026 I suppose I could try one little cheerio, who would know \u2026 \u201d before immediately feeling guilty in case their vegan friend somehow heard their thoughts.<\/p>\n
When it comes to a meat raffle, it really is the ultimate in temptation.<\/p>\n
There are no flashing lights. No jackpot jingle scientifically engineered to trigger the same emotional response as Pavlov\u2019s dog hearing a dinner bell. No complicated rules and conditions hidden in tiny writing at the bottom of the screen. <\/p>\n
Just rows of meat trays sitting on the bar wrapped in enough Glad Wrap that any winner will require a chainsaw to access their sausages.<\/p>\n
And the simplicity only makes it more exciting.<\/p>\n
Because once those trays go on display, something changes in people; the room shifts.<\/p>\n
Conversations that moments earlier were about rugby, politics, weather or whether the council had \u201ccompletely lost the plot\u201d suddenly become entirely focused on processed meat valuation.<\/p>\n
People begin analysing trays with surprising seriousness.<\/p>\n
\u201cTray four\u2019s got decent bacon.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cNot bad snarlers in number seven.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cBit weak through the mince section.\u201d<\/p>\n
Old blokes stand there studying the selections like judges at the A&P Show, quietly assessing sausage quality with the concentration usually reserved for livestock auctions and All Blacks selections.<\/p>\n
And there is always one tray nobody really wants. <\/p>\n
Usually containing cuts where it\u2019s not mutton dressed as lamb, rather it has offal you\u2019d normally only find in French cuisine dressed up as mutton. <\/p>\n
Yet if that same tray is won, the winner will carry it back to their table like they\u2019ve just secured Olympic gold for New Zealand.<\/p>\n
And perhaps no moment captures the spirit of the meat raffle better than the winner\u2019s walk. <\/p>\n
I say walk, but in reality, it is more of a swagger.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a hard walk to get right, because most people are unsure how much celebration is too much celebration after winning mince, so most settle somewhere between humble embarrassment and quiet triumph.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s usually a small smile they\u2019re trying not to show too much. Maybe a subtle nod to nearby tables. A lifting of the tray just high enough to acknowledge the achievement without appearing arrogant about sausages.<\/p>\n
Or you could go the other way entirely and hold your plastic-wrapped meat tray aloft like the Ranfurly Shield, quietly expecting applause from the gathered masses, maybe even the request for an autograph or two.<\/p>\n
Of course, no meat raffle exists without one of the true giants of Kiwi community life. The ticket seller.<\/p>\n
Usually appearing halfway through your conversation carrying books of raffle tickets and a metal cash tin, they move through the room with the calm confidence of somebody who knows resistance is pointless.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve gotta be in to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
And they\u2019re absolutely right.<\/p>\n
Nobody in New Zealand has ever successfully made eye contact with a meat raffle seller and escaped without buying at least one ticket.<\/p>\n
The social pressure arrives immediately. Suddenly you\u2019re searching pockets for coins while pretending you had every intention of supporting the club from the beginning.<\/p>\n
Remember, this level of raffle-selling presence is powerful enough to turn our vegetarian friend into a meat-raffle-ticket-buying carnivore.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s never just one ticket, either.<\/p>\n
Because once you buy a ticket, your brain immediately begins performing wildly optimistic mathematics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, statistically, two tickets doubles my chances.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is how otherwise sensible adults accidentally find themselves financially overcommitted to processed meat products.<\/p>\n
And every raffle has its regular characters, too.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s always the bloke who loudly announces: \u201cNever win bloody anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s despite everybody there personally witnessing him win at least four trays since Easter.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s the strategic buyer who spreads tickets across multiple numbers like they\u2019re diversifying an investment portfolio.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s always one suspiciously lucky older guy who wins often enough that low-level conspiracy theories quietly begin circulating around the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe won last week too. <\/p>\n
\u201cKnows somebody running it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is interesting, because this isn\u2019t exactly Wolf of Wall Street insider trading. <\/p>\n
The criminal conspiracy here revolves around sausages and lamb chops, so it\u2019s less Jordan Belfort and more Huntaway of Hunterville.<\/p>\n
And perhaps that\u2019s why the meat raffle feels so wonderfully Kiwi.<\/p>\n
Because, unlike modern gambling, where the prizes become bigger, louder and increasingly ridiculous, the meat raffle remains beautifully practical.<\/p>\n
Nobody\u2019s trying to win more millions than they need.<\/p>\n
The dream is mince.<\/p>\n
The ambition is enough meat to justify saying: \u201cRighto, that\u2019s dinner sorted tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
And perhaps that\u2019s why the meat raffle has lasted so long in New Zealand, because underneath the sausages, chops, and optimistic ticket purchases, it was never really about the meat in the first place.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about community. Familiar faces. Standing in a warm pub on a cold night while somebody rattles tickets in a bowl and announces numbers through a microphone with the sound quality of a regional airport from 1987.<\/p>\n
And for a few brief moments, everybody in the room shares the exact same thought.<\/p>\n
Tonight might finally be my night.<\/p>\n
Even if the grand prize is six saveloys and a tray of bacon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Because every small-town pub, rugby club, RSA and working men\u2019s club in the country understands one simple truth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,21935,14768,240014,240015,21934,807,424,102150,3822,85845,130,111,139,69,1523,71043,5970,2687,4499,6100,199,131,1361,223,28066,14605,4276,6027],"class_list":["post-476341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dwight","tag-every","tag-gamble","tag-gambles","tag-glenn","tag-kiwis","tag-life","tag-lifes","tag-meat","tag-mince","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-raffle","tag-really","tag-saying","tag-small","tag-still","tag-take","tag-than","tag-that","tag-the","tag-true","tag-whats","tag-why","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}