Residents in suburban Oak Lawn are hoping that Wednesday will be their lucky day, as the jackpot for a ‘queen of hearts’ drawing has soared past $1 million.
According to officials, the jackpot for Wednesday’s drawing has risen to more than $1.28 million, with no one winning the top prize in nearly two years.
“Oh, I’m excited, but there’s so many people that are doing it that their chances are slim to none,” resident Kathy Ferrin said. “But you never know, right?”
The drawing is being conducted by an organization called Park Lawn, a group dedicated to assisting children and adults with developmental disabilities in ‘creating a better future,’ according to their website.
“The most vulnerable of our citizens are our people with disabilities,” marketing manager Mark Dynia said.
This week’s jackpot is by far the largest the group has ever had, Dynia said.
“Our previous jackpots, I think our max ever got as high as $160,000, so when it started creeping into a quarter-of-a-million, we started saying ‘wow, this is really good,’” he said.
The organization’s “Queen of Hearts” drawings take place each Wednesday at 7 p.m., and can be seen on Facebook.
Online ticket sales are available from Wednesday night through Monday at noon, with in-person sales continuing at Park Lawn and at At The Office Sports Bar and Grill through Wednesday evening.
Tim Newsome, who owns The Office, said that he believes strongly in Park Lawn’s mission.
“People with disabilities are obviously at a great disadvantage, and anything that we can do to help out and give something back to the community, we try to do a lot of things in the community, but this is definitely one charity that we’ve gravitated towards,” he said.
In a Queen of Hearts drawing, a ticket is drawn randomly from a bin, and the envelope that corresponds with the number on the ticket is opened to reveal the card. If it’s the queen of hearts, the ticketholder wins the grand prize.
Typically face cards pay out smaller amounts, while jokers will pay out but will then reset the board for the following week.
Winners do not need to be present to win, but 60% of the pot goes to the winner if they are present and 50% goes to the winner if they aren’t.
The remaining part of the jackpot goes to Park Lawn. 10% of the charity’s share goes to the next jackpot drawing.