McHenry City Council talks tightened restrictions for next VFW Queen of Hearts

The McHenry City Council and the McHenry Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4600 are in talks about how to handle the next go-round of the club’s wildly popular – and lucrative – Queen of Hearts raffle game.

The game drew thousands to the area recently as the jackpot rose to more than $7 million. The VFW ultimately decided to send the game to a drawdown last month, and Lori Skoniecke of Schaumburg walked away the winner.

The jackpot hit $7,080,528, which meant Skoniecke took home about $2.8 million after taxes. An additional 20 percent of the pot goes back to the VFW. The remaining 20 percent, plus the ticket sales from the previous week, will start the new pot, which is expected to begin at $3,412,059.

The game brought people to McHenry from across state lines, and the City Council is concerned about the strain the crowds put on the city’s police force and the effect to traffic in the area.

Council members raised the city raffle ordinance four times to accommodate the game’s growing jackpot but now must consider lowering it again, city officials said Monday. The ordinance now allows for payouts up to $6 million, which means the Queen of Hearts pot can hit $10 million because the winner gets 60 percent.

Police Chief John Birk, Mayor Wayne Jett and City Administrator Derik Morefield met with VFW officials to talk about concerns and potential limitations, and club leaders will take those back to the VFW board, Morefield said.

The VFW originally said the plan was to begin the next raffle in January, but that date may need to get pushed back as the city and the VFW wrestle with potential problems that could come up, Morefield said.

Council members said they wanted to see some kind of changes occur before the game begins again.

Ward 4 Alderman Scott Curry said he wanted to see a lowered limit because problems cropped up once the pot hit $3 million.

“Obviously the raffle was very successful for the VFW,” he said. “And that is a great thing, but we had a bit of an issue handling traffic.”