Last week, the jackpot was $510,000, and “Johnny O” from WOMP FM pulled the name of a local female who was in attendance at Undo’s Restaurant in Benwood. The number on her ticket was “32”, and under that choice was … the 5 of Clubs.
So, this week, it’s estimated that Undo’s Queen of Hearts Drawing will be worth at least $600,000 if a winner is finally pulled this Wednesday evening at 8 p.m.
The system is easy to comprehend: If the winner is present at the time of the drawing, they receive 80 percent of the pot, and the rest is split between this round’s primary sponsor – the Chambers YMCA – and the next pot. If the winner is not present, they receive 50 percent, the YMCA receives 10 percent, and 40 percent is returned to the pot.
That means if the Queen of Hearts is pulled on July 22nd with the grand prize at the estimated $600,000 level, the winner would get $480,000, the YMCA would receive $60,000, and $60,000 would be put into the next round of drawings.
“We’ve been doing the Queen of Hearts drawings for about 16 months, and we’ve had one winner so far and she won $39.000 the last round,” explained Herk Sparachane with Undo’s. “There’s also the 50/50 that benefits a local charity, and we just gave the Benwood Volunteer Fire Department a check for $10,000, and the McMechen VFD will be next.
“According to West Virginia Law, as the main charity for this round, the YMCA had to get the pot started with $10,000, and they’ve been paid back plus they will receive a very nice chunk of change when someone hits the Queen of Hearts this time around,” he said. “Once that happens, we’ll have to see if the next round will get this big again.”
Along with the local volunteer fire departments, the 50/50 drawings have benefited a number of other non-profit organizations, including an organization near and dear to Sparachane’s heart after his recent battle against cancer.
“We have given $5,000 to Ohio Cancer Research, to local families, and to a number of non-profits, and the pots have been pretty high the last few weeks,” he said. “We sold $5,600 worth in 50/50 tickets last week alone, and that means the fire department in McMechen receives a nice amount.
“My big project is to honor the people who I thought were the heart and soul of the Benwood Volunteer when I was a kid. They were the pioneers of that fire department, and they were Bonnie and Mike Smith,” explained Sparachane, who played a huge role with the fundraising for the Gold Star Family Memorial that now rests outside the Marshall County Courthouse in Moundsville. “I’ve even talked to a gentleman about monuments, and with the family, too, so this is something that’s moving forward now.
“Bonnie and Mike were unbelievable people.”
Oh Where, Oh Where?
“Queen of Hearts” drawings are governed by laws in both Ohio and West Virginia, and there are minor differences when it comes to specifics in both states. In fact, it was a drawing in the Cleveland area that Herk heard about closed to six years ago that initially sparked his interest in bringing something similar to the Undo’s location in Benwood.
“Someone told me about this Queen of Hearts game in the Cleveland area that got as high as $2.6 million with only four cards left, so I drove up and got into the drawing,” Sparachane recalled. “Why not blow $40 trying to win $2 million, right?
“And the crowd was incredible, and they had cars parked everywhere,” he said. “And then there was the big pot worth millions of over near Cadiz, so that’s when I started looking into it with Mike Duplaga and a few others and now we’ve got it going and the reaction has been awesome, it really has.
“Everywhere I go now, everyone asks me to pull their name this week. It’s got people excited, that’s for sure.”
Entering the next drawing – before Wednesday – is easy by visiting the Alpha Tavern in Wheeling or Undo’s in Benwood to buy tickets, or purchase them in Benwood on Wednesday up until 7:30 p.m. Tickets are also available tomorrow only at the Undo’s location in Weirton.
But there’s no need to continue asking Herk to pull your number because he’s now inviting local “celebrities” to reach in and pull the weekly ticket just as WOMP’s “Johnny O” did last week.
“I pulled the tickets for a long time, and someone asked me what I would do if I pulled someone from my family. So that made me think and – even though it can’t be fixed – we would start asking people to come be our celebrity ticket pullers,” he said. “We’ll have someone new coming this Wednesday.
“We’re doing it the right way to avoid any problems,” he said. “It’s great seeing so many people at the drawings; I’ve seen people I haven’t seen in decades. We sold 63,000 tickets for last week, and I’m willing to bet there will be an increase this week.
“That’s great for the winner, but it’s also great for our local charities.”
