Just my Luck

sorry for that snookered, but is this a joke? I know I'm stupid.

Navigator--

At one point almost anyone in a seafaring town could invest in some small portion of a ship's cargo. "I'll do such-and-such or buy so-and-so when my ship comes in," was like saying "When I win the lottery."

Snookered has posted the old idiom and the new twist (which he didn't invent). His ship came in, his investment paid off, but he wasn't there to claim the profit because he was waiting at the airport.