GARRETTSVILLE: The parking lot at SkyLane Bowling in Garrettsville pulsed with noise as country singer Chris Higbee performed on a tractor-trailer stage in front of a cheering crowd overflowing into the street.
But when Aaron King, the co-owner and general manager of the bowling alley, drew one ticket out of nearly 150,000 from a massive tumbler, the crowd fell silent.
SkyLane Bowling held its weekly Queen of Hearts raffle Sunday, attracting nearly 15,000 hopefuls from as far as Canada who were trying to finally be the game winner.
Once King drew a ticket, that person had a 1-in-4 shot to pick the Queen of Hearts.
When he flipped over the nine of hearts, the crowd erupted again with the realization that no one had won and they had at least one more chance.
“We just can’t seem to find the Queen of Hearts,” King said.
For 50 weeks, SkyLane hasn’t seen a winner, but it has managed to grow the jackpot to $2.3 million and cram a crowd seven times the population of the village of 2,300 into the small bowling alley and its parking lot.
King estimates that jackpot will hit $3 million by next week’s drawing.
The rules
The game works like this: 54 cards are placed face down on a board and numbered on the back. People buy tickets for $5 each (or five for $20) and write their name and selected number on them.
Each week, King then chooses one ticket from the giant barrel for the Queen of Hearts game. Whichever card number the person picked on the ticket is flipped over. If it’s the Queen of Hearts, the lucky person wins 90 percent of the jackpot while the other 10 percent rolls over for the next drawing.
A separate drawing also is held for a 50/50 raffle.
The winner of the 50/50 raffle takes home half the pot while the other half is donated to local charities. This week, $91,977 went to one person while the other half was donated to the Portage Animal Protective League and the Garrettsville Freedom Nelson Volunteer Fire Department.
Since the Queen of Hearts game started, King made it a rule that if the winner wasn’t present, he or she would only take home 50 percent of the winnings.
But on Sunday, he announced that won’t be the case anymore.
He, the mayor and local safety forces agreed it would be best to revoke that rule and give the 90 percent whether the winner was present or not, especially as the game gains popularity with each passing week. King has already hired 11 police officers from three cities to be at the bowling alley each Sunday.
“We’ve pushed it as far as we can go,” King said.
Neither of the buyers of the tickets that were drawn on Sunday were present, so King called them and left a simple message, “Hello, you’re going to want to return this call, please.”
When King couldn’t reach the buyer of the drawn Queen of Hearts ticket by phone, he flipped over the selected number — 42 — and revealed the game would continue for at least one more week.
Numbers 5, 36 and 46 remain.
Sunday fun day
The game has been challenging for the staff members, who spend 16 hours each day selling tickets.
Despite that, King has made a fortune on food and beer sales and enjoys donating to charity.
“Sundays, those are fun days,” King said. “I’m looking forward to changing somebody’s life dramatically. It’s been great to help out and kind of put Garrettsville on the map.”
All day long, the crowd was abuzz, filling out tickets with the hope that the Queen of Hearts would finally show her face.
“They’re going to pick a winner today.”
“Are you ready to watch me win $2 million?”
People started arriving as soon as the alley opened at 6 a.m. A crowd filed in throughout the day, buying food and tickets from vendors outside and dreaming of becoming a millionaire.
And with the queen yet to be turned over, that dream still lives on.
Millionaire dreams
Barb Miles from Warren gave up her son for adoption 18 years ago, but last December he found her and contacted her.
Since then, she’s connected with him and his kids, who all live in Illinois.
“If I won, I would try to do what I could for my grandkids and be close with my son and his family,” Miles said.
She’s been playing the Queen of Hearts game since it hit $1 million. Since it started, she said it’s rejuvenated Garrettsville, which is still recovering from a fire that destroyed its historic district in 2014.
“I feel bad for the owners, but this is awesome,” Miles said. “I hope it goes the whole way.”
Dave Fisher from Bristolville has only been playing the past two months, but he had come to the bowling alley before the game ever started.
“There used to be five people here,” Fisher said.
King estimates nearly 20,000 people will play in the next drawing, which takes place at the bowling alley at 6 p.m. Sunday. Whoever is picked next week will have a one-in-three chance at winning the jackpot.
When the raffle was over, the crowd slowly left the littered parking lot — but not before pulling out cash to buy tickets for next week.
Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com.