(Cleveland) – There was no winner Wednesday night in the Grayton Road Tavern’s Queen of Hearts game, so the jackpot for next Wednesday night’s drawing in the increasingly popular game is likely to be over $1 million.
The game, in which raffle contestants pre-select which playing card to reveal, had a jackpot of $822,179 on Wednesday night. The card that was selected by the raffle winner was the three of hearts.
So many people have turned out to play the game, hoping for a big payout, that Cleveland Police and Fire had to make a visit on Wednesday. Parking areas near the bar have been restricted, and the line of people waiting to buy tickets was moved outside.
Here’s how the game works. A full deck of 54 playing cards (including both jokers) is turned upside down and taped to a board, which is locked up. Each card is numbered 1-54. Players buy raffle tickets, on which they put their name, phone number, and the number of one of the cards. If your raffle ticket is drawn, the bar will turn over the playing card with the number chosen on it. If the card is turned over, and it’s the Queen of Hearts, you win 90% of the jackpot (the rest goes into the next game). If it’s any other card, the game continues for another week, with one less card to draw from. That week’s jackpot, if it’s not won, all goes into next week’s jackpot.
It’s believed this is the largest Queen of Hearts jackpot in the Cleveland area, but it doesn’t compare with one in 2016 at a bar in the Youngstown area, where the jackpot made it up to $1.8 million, and one last year at a Garrettsville bowling alley, where the jackpot rose to $3.4 million.
(Photo by Ray Davis/WTAM 1100)