* From August…
A nearly $1.6 million jackpot has made the VFW’s Queen of Hearts raffle in the small town of Morris, Ill., something of an obsession. Locals and out-of-towners are clogging streets and driveways with their cars, waiting in line for hours and spending wads of cash for a chance to draw the winning card.
Normally, in this sleepy town about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, the raffle draws a few dozen participants, and the prize money may reach hundreds of or even a few thousand dollars. But if no one wins, the pot rolls over each week; and now the stakes in the Queen of Hearts raffle have been growing for almost a year. The final drawing is at 6 p.m. Monday.
As the pot has grown, word spread and the crowd has also increased.
Now there’s an hourslong line every day to buy tickets at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6049. Police provide security, and the fire marshal regulates how many people can be inside the hall. Neighbors complain that cars are blocking their driveways, and the VFW bar manager warned online that rude ticket seekers should not “GET IN MY FACE” anymore before tickets go on sale.
* How it’s played…
Queen of Hearts is a game where 54 cards – a full deck plus two jokers – are put facedown on a board. The object is to pick the queen of hearts. Players buy raffle tickets for a chance to pick a card off the board. If both jokers are chosen, the game resets, and all the previously pulled cards return to the board.
* It’s certainly bringing big crowds to some tiny towns…
Thousands swarmed to the small Illinois town of Aviston Wednesday night for a chance to win some serious cash — more than $800,000.
* A buddy of mine was telling me that one of these progressive drawings had swelled well into the six figures in little Mt. Olive. From the town’s Facebook page…
With the Queen of Hearts drawing growing, it is very important that motorists do not park by barricades, fire hydrants or block alleys. Please dont block roadways while listening to the PODCAST. These are all very important for safety reasons. Violaters will be ticketed and/or towed. Please be respectful to the neighborhood.
* But now there’s word that some private bars are hosting the raffles and some of the not-for-profit groups aren’t getting the required permits. From the BND…
At least a dozen Queen of Hearts raffles in the metro-east may not be in accordance with state law, according to a Belleville News-Democrat investigation.
In some cases, the raffles themselves appear to violate parts of the state’s Raffles and Poker Runs Act. In other cases, the raffle ordinances in the cities don’t appear to be consistent with state law. And in yet other cases, the cities don’t appear to be enforcing their own raffle ordinances.
Gambling critics and experts say if the laws are not followed and enforced, it can lead to big problems: The prize money could be seized by the government, losing players could demand refunds, the insurance policies of the organizations might not cover accidents, and large crowds can threaten the safety of communities.
And even though some of these raffles have reached jackpots approaching $1 million, no one, either from the local or the state level, seems to regulate them. […]
The most common problems found with Queen of Hearts raffles and city raffle ordinances in the metro-east included:
▪ Not having a maximum prize amount in the city ordinance, or raffles going over the maximum prize amount in the ordinance.
▪ Conducting raffles at premises that do not appear to be allowed under state law. At least three local Queen of Hearts raffles are being conducted at privately-owned bars.
▪ Organizations being issued raffle licenses despite not applying for them, or in some cases, raffles being conducted without the city issuing any license at all.
Confusion and various interpretations of the law seem to have led to disparities in local ordinances. In some cases, the city regulations do not follow state law. In others, the city has no ordinances at all, but still hands out raffle licenses.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 10:05 am:
It probably says something about how desperate small towns are, but whatever, sounds like a fun-enough community building activity. I wouldn’t want regulators to come down too hard on this.
- Texas Red - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 10:19 am:
No doubt we need a legislative fix to this phenomenon.The casinos need to be protected and I bet Representative Lou Lang will lead the way.
- Ron Burgundy - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 10:25 am:
Nothing wrong with this as long as there is some basic level of outside regulation to make sure they are conducted fairly and none of the organizers run off with the money.
- Annonin' - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 10:44 am:
Shockin’
Perhaps Cat Fax can set up one of these on the Blog? Then we can save the gas money, bad food and stale draft beer.
- Ambrose Chase - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 10:55 am:
The whole game seems like a scam to me. Between the boats, OTBs, lottery drawings, scratchers and video poker in every strip mall from Metropolis to Galena, don’t we have enough gambling without this?
- OneMan - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 11:01 am:
We had a thing about this in Aurora a couple of years ago…
At that point, the jackpot was only $100,000
http://htsblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/only-in-aurora.html
It ended up becoming an issue due to the jackpot size, it also allowed the mayor to act like he wasn’t aware of the membership policies of local clubs. His response generated more pushback from residents and the local paper than virtually anything else he had done for a while.
- Team Warwick - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 11:30 am:
State law says only nonprofits can be licensed to hold a raffle.
so a raffle at a privately owned bar cannot be licensed.
i dont know what the penalty is for holding an unlicensed raffle.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 11:51 am:
I apologize, I’m having gadget problems, but do the links mention what the house spit on the jackpots are? These jackpots ain’t shaking the dice cup at the bar for a chance at a couple hundred bucks in the jar.
This kind of money could certainly draw the attention of more than just revenooers.
Back in the day, Sam Giancana rocketed to the top of the Outfit when he discovered how lucrative the South
Side numbers games were, and he took them over by kidnapping and slinging lead.
For a great yarn, read Nathan Thompson’s account of the old policy wheels and the Outfit taking them over in his book, “Kings: The True Story of Chicago’s Policy Kings and Numbers Racketeers.”
Features the great Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe and Ted Roe, the last holdout and baddest cat in town until the Outfit finally caught up with him and gunned him down.
- Liandro - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 11:56 am:
Dixon has had to update our raffle code multiple times since the State’s increased regulation, and we’re working on yet another update. There are several things we would prefer not to have anything to do with, but state statutes more or less require us to. The problem is that if we charged enough to make back the costs of oversight, we would kill off many of the small games. For example, our local Moose lodge goes the route of having many small, cheap games instead of one major Queen of Hearts-style major game.
“i dont know what the penalty is for holding an unlicensed raffle.”
Among other things, they can lose their video gaming license…which is big money for many bars.
- Liandro - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 12:01 pm:
“do the links mention what the house spit on the jackpots are”
It varies. In the case of Dixon’s VFW (where the first game went into the six figures), the final prize is split between the winner (70%), the VFW (15%), and a number of community non-profits (15%).
http://www.saukvalley.com/2016/03/24/rock-falls-resident-reveals-queen-of-hearts-wins-jackpot/aarpdb5/
- Mason born - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 12:54 pm:
Word
Have friends in Mount Olive, if winner is present gets 70%, 10% goes to the village parks & kids teams, 10% goes to the organization, 10% to start the new pot, if the winner isn’t present then it’s 50 % to winner 30% to the new pot. Organization will withhold 25% of the winners share & send to IRS.
Aviston is 100% to the winner.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 1:11 pm:
Liandro, Mason, thanks.
Liandro, losing a video game license is no laughing matter. My tavern owner friends are over the moon about the rake.
Nothing like having a machine sitting in the corner that doesn’t call in sick or pass out free good booze to friends and is rigged to turn a profit, day in and day out.
- northender - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 1:21 pm:
It’s a locational thing. Queen of Hearts here has a pot of $2000 +/-. That’s a lot of money to me but the event is barely attended by anyone who doesn’t belong to the post.
- Generic Drone - Thursday, Nov 16, 17 @ 3:54 pm:
Leave it alone. Probably better odds than playing the states machines anyway.