Huntley Legion Post’s lottery jackpot hits over $170,000

The Huntley Legion Post 673′s Queen of Hearts jackpot has grown to $171,779.17.

This round has been continuing for more than a year and is the largest jackpot the location has had, Auxiliary President Suzan Hoehn said. The Queen of Hearts jackpot is drawn at 8:15 p.m. every Tuesday.

Anyone over the age of 21 can come into the legion club and buy tickets for $1 each, seven days a week, until 7:15 p.m. Tuesdays.

Participants pick a number for their tickets. If your ticket is pulled out of the tumbler, you automatically win a percentage of what the legion made for the week in ticket sales, Hoehn said.

Hoehn said that all of the cards are sealed on a laminated board. “Nobody at the legion or anywhere knows where that queen of hearts is,” Hoehn said.

Nobody at the legion or anywhere knows where that queen of hearts is.”

—  Suzan Hoehn, auxiliary president

There are numbers placed on the sealed board and behind each number is a card. The auxiliary takes a knife to the board to unseal and reveal the card. If it’s a queen of hearts, the whole jackpot is the winner’s. If it’s a face card, the winner gets $100. If it’s a joker, the winner gets $200. But, if the second joker is picked, then the board starts all over again with another deck of cards.

“And that’s why this round has been running for so long,” Hoehn said.

Tickets are dumped and start fresh every week for the running progressive jackpot.

The auxiliary takesout 24% of the jackpot that goes to pay the taxes.

The ticket sales minus the expenses for the game goes to fund veterans events and veterans organizations, including VetFest, student scholarships and food pantries.

The legion, located at 11712 Coral St., encompasses the local Sons of Legion and auxiliary in Huntley.

The next drawing will be Tuesday, July 4.

Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that people must be 21 to buy tickets, and that the ticket sales minus the game’s expenses go toward funding veterans events and veterans organizations. The story also was corrected to reflect that the cards used in the game are sealed on a laminated board and that the auxiliary takes out 24% of the jackpot to cover taxes.