Play Deal or No Deal

Planning this activity

• Write down numbers between 1 and 22 on the front of envelopes
• Take 22 small pieces of paper and write down an amount of money on each, then seal them inside each envelope. Make a note of which amounts of money are in each box, but keep this a secret.
• You could make this more interesting by changing the decision being on an amount of money to being a decision for the group, such as helping to decide the game you're going to play next, the dinner for camp, the next Scout badge you'll do or the destination of the next trip. For example, for dinner on camp, you'd choose 22 dinners and put each activity in an envelope, rather than an amount of money.
• Assign each young person to a box and make a note of this.
• Make a big ‘game board’ with the amounts of money you’ve handed out. It doesn’t matter what you use, as long as you can delete amounts one at a time. You could even write them on a whiteboard to rub out when they're found. 

Introduce the game

1. Gather everyone together and tell them you're going to play Deal or No Deal.
2. Explain that Deal or No Deal is a game show. The contestant has a box in front of them, which contains their potential prize. One by one, they’ll ask their friends to open their boxes to narrow down how much their box may contain. As they go, a banker will call and make them offers – they’ll have to decide whether to accept the deal or risk opening more boxes to find out what their box contains.
3. Give out each young person's envelope with their assigned box number.
4. Open the envelopes of people who aren't there and show the amounts to the group. Remove that amount of money from the game board.
5. Everyone should show that they have their envelopes by holding them up so everyone can see the number. People could sit in order from 1 to 22 in the circle
6. Choose someone to be the contestant. They should sit in the middle or on one side of the circle with their envelope.
7. Remember, you can chat to people before they open their envelope and ask how they're doing or what they did at the weekend.

Round one

1. Everyone should hold their envelopes up so the contestant can see them.
2. The contestant should choose an envelope to open by saying the number of the envelope and the name of the person holding it, then they should mute themselves again.
3. The person holding the chosen envelope should open their envelope and reveal how much money it contains.
4. The person leading the game remove that amount of money from the game board. As that amount of money has been revealed, it can’t be in the contestant’s envelope.
5. The contestant should choose a second envelope. Like before, the person holding the envelope should reveal the contents of their envelope so the person leading the game can delete it from the screen.
6. Once the contestant has opened five envelopes, the person leading the game should pretend to receive a phone call from the banker.

Meet the banker

1. Depending on how many players you have, you may want to change the number of envelopes in each round.
2. The person leading the game should pretend to call the banker. They could use a prop toy phone or their own phone. In fact, they'll make up the banker's offer themselves. 
3. The amount the banker offers depends on the boxes in play and the amount of money being left on the game board. However, you may want to make it more of a lower offer to begin with.
4. The person leading the game should tell everyone that the banker will make an offer to buy their box. If they accept the banker's offer, their box will go to the banker and they're left with what the banker offered them. The person leading the game should explain that the banker’s made an offer of an amount of money.
5. Everyone should advise the contestant what to do by suggesting ‘deal’ or ‘no deal’ in the chat. The question is should they accept the offer (even though their box may have more in it) or keep playing, risking it as they may find out that their box is less valuable than they hoped?
6. The person leading the game should ask ‘Deal or No Deal?’ to the contestant and the contestant should answer.
7. If the contestant answers ‘Deal’, they win the amount of money the banker offered. They should open their envelope and see what it contains – did they win more because they took the deal?
8. If the contestant answers ‘No Deal’, play continues to round two.

The other rounds

1. The contestant should choose an envelope. Like before, the person holding the envelope should reveal the contents of their envelope so the person leading the game can delete it from the game board.
2. Once the contestant has opened another three envelopes, the person leading the game should pretend to receive a phone call from the banker.
3. Like before, the person leading the game should explain the banker’s offer. Everyone should advise the contestant, who should be asked ‘Deal or No Deal?’ and answer ‘deal’ or ‘no deal’.
4. If the contestant says ‘no deal’, keep playing. The banker should call to make an offer after the contestant opens three envelopes.
5. As the game progresses, you’ll probably want to offer closer to the fairer offer (or even a bit above it) – this makes it trickier for the contestant to decide what to do. 
6. Everyone should keep playing until the contestant accepts a deal or opens all of the envelopes, revealing what they’ve won.