ELDRED -The tiny town of Eldred is humming with excitement as there was no big winner for the Queen of Hearts game drawing sponsored by the Eldred American Legion Post 97810gmail-aBn">Tuesday night. The expectations for a guaranteed pot winner at the next drawing on Tuesday are massive.
The excitement for the game has continued to swell week after week. At the last drawing, the Queen of Hearts prize was a massive $416,135. One lucky participant won $500 for picking the incorrect card. The crowd Tuesday night appeared easily as big as last week and next Tuesday is expected to be a madhouse because they will pull cards until the Queen of Hearts card is pulled.
Many people have expressed confusion as to how the game is played. Queen of Hearts is a game where players buy raffle tickets for a weekly drawing. Raffle organizers hang a bulletin board with playing cards randomly placed in rows, backs showing. Each card is labeled with a number. Players buy raffle tickets each week, in this case $1 each. Once purchased, the buyer writes their name, a number of a card not previously turned over and a contact phone number on their raffle ticket and place it into a huge rotating drum.
It's vitally important to understand that every week is essentially a new game with an increasing large prize if someone is lucky enough to have their ticket pulled and marked with the Queen of Hearts card number. Every week the tickets are new and not carried over from previous weeks. If you want to participate in the drawing every week, you must purchase a new ticket every week. There is no limit to the number of tickets that can be purchased by an individual. Anyone that participated in previous drawings will need to purchase a ticket for the next or upcoming drawing. No tickets carry over to a new drawing week.
At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, someone will pull a ticket at random from the drum. The card the person selected on their ticket will be turned over and they will win whatever prize that card pays. The ticket selection and card reveals will continue until the Queen of Hearts is pulled. Once the Queen of Hearts is pulled, the player wins the pot and the game ends.
Eldred American Legion Commander Jon Baker said: "Next week we will reach our cap at about $465,000. The $465,000 takes into account what has already been paid. When someone draws the Queen of Hearts next week, they will get at least half the pot if not there.”
Baker continued: "If someone pulls out Queen of Hearts first, the game is over. The winner will get half if not there or the full amount if there."
The Legion only has the ability to do $500,000 total winnings for this game and takes 20 percent of the revenues to fund their programs. The remainder goes into the pot for a lucky winner. Whatever cannot be paid next Tuesday, will be rolled over into another game that will.
