After a year’s worth of drawings, 51 bad cards chosen and millions and millions of dollars in sales, the Queen of Hearts finally showed up to the party in Garrettsville.
Mantua resident Terri Vechery’s name was chosen to pick the winning card, card No. 5, and win most of the $3.4 million jackpot in Sunday’s Queen of Hearts game at SkyLane Bowling.
The big win comes after 51 weeks of drawing names every Sunday to uncover the Queen of Hearts. Only three of the 54 original cards remained for Vechery to choose from.
Vechery wasn’t present to claim her prize, but Aaron King, the owner of the bowling alley, called her to deliver the news.
King originally made it a rule that the winner had to be present during the drawing to win the full 90 percent of the pot. He changed the rule last week, however, after tens of thousands of people showed up week after week.
Vechery will take home 90 percent of the $3.4 million, while the other 10 percent will go toward the next drawing.
The game will start all over again and hold its first drawing in a couple of weeks to give staffers at the bowling alley a break from the madness. King has not decided on the exact date of the next drawing.
King said the bowling alley sold $1 million worth of tickets this week alone.
The winner of a 50/50 raffle was also chosen, winning $150,000. The other $150,000 from this week’s pot will go to the Portage County libraries and the Garrettsville Area Chamber of Commerce.
Vechery could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com.