Special Olympics comes up short in raffle for $5 million Sammamish mansion

A raffle for Special Olympics of Washington that drew some criticism for promising a $5 million waterfront mansion if enough tickets were sold has come to an end, falling far short of the number needed to give away the house. But the organization insists its biggest ever fundraiser is still a success.

Special Olympics came under fire in February for failing to plainly disclose in some marketing materials it would only give away the 10,000 square foot waterfront Sammamish mansion in its “Dream House Raffle” if it sold 75,000 of the $150 tickets. It subsequently changed all of its marketing materials, commercial and website to clearly emphasize the rules.

The organization had sold 27,511 tickets as of Friday’s contest close, says spokesman Dan Wartelle.

The grand prize winner will be drawn Saturday, May 31. And Wartelle says the winner should still be thrilled with the prize.

“The winner will walk away with upwards of $1 million after expenses and Special Olympics will do close to the same,” he says. “We certainly wanted to reach that [75,000], but we’re very excited to raise as much as we did.”

The raffle featured 1,700 prizes, including several new cars, vacations, consumer electronics and more. Wartelle insists despite the early issues, it’s been an overwhelming success.

“That is our largest fundraiser right there and we probably combined two of our fundraisers into one,” he says of all the money raised for Special Olympics.

The 10,000 square foot Sammamish mansion promoted in the raffle will now go back on the market. Special Olympics had leased it for the last several months for an undisclosed amount. Despite falling short of its stretch goal, Wartelle says they’ll likely try again next year.

“That’s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” he says. “There’s not a doubt in my mind that we will be doing another house raffle around the same time next year. It has by far exceeded our expectations.”