Riverhead Moose Lodge Queen of Hearts jackpot reaches more than $504,000

This Friday, two lucky Moose members will walk away from the Riverhead Moose Lodge with major cash prizes totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

That’s because, by an act of insane chance — a 1.8% chance, to be exact — the Queen of Hearts has evaded the capture of the lucky (but not lucky enough) Moose members who won the last 53 drawings of the Search for the Queen of Hearts raffle game, leaving only the Queen remaining and a jackpot of more than $500,000. 

“This never happened before in the history of this lodge,” said Brett Marascia, a past president of the lodge. The Riverhead Moose Lodge has been running the game for forty years and, before this game, reached a jackpot of around $168,000, he said.

Under the rules of the game, the person who chooses the Queen of Hearts wins 60% of the jackpot. The rest goes to the lodge, Marascia said, which uses the money to support the international fraternity’s endeavors, including Mooseheart, a residential childcare facility and school for children in need outside of Chicago, and Moosehaven, a senior living community for Moose members in Orange Park, Florida. 

But 60% of the current jackpot would exceed New York State’s limit on winnings, Marascia said. The member whose ticket is picked on Friday will automatically score the $300,000 maximum amount, minus taxes. A second ticket will be drawn for the rest of the 60% over $300,000. The jackpot, which sits at $504,960, still has time to grow by tens of thousands of dollars before Friday’s drawing.

Queen of Hearts is a game of chance, licensed by the state gaming commission, where cards from an ordinary deck of 52, plus two jokers, are placed inside sealed number envelopes behind a locked glass case. Each week, players buy raffle tickets, place them in a spinning raffle drum and hope their number gets picked. The person whose ticket is picked gets the opportunity to choose one of the numbered envelopes, which contain cash prizes. The person who picks the Queen of Hearts wins 60% of the jackpot, which grows every week with the amount of tickets sold, and resets the game.

But at the Moose Lodge, there is no mystery as to where the Queen lies; the prize card sits under the number 8. The only thing that counts now is whose raffle tickets will be pulled.

Only Moose members can participate in the game. Three tickets can be purchased for $10 until the drawing at 9 p.m. Friday. Last week, the lodge sold more than $70,000 in tickets for the 50/50 chance at $300,000; the lodge is expecting even more tickets to be sold this week, Marascia said.

Moose members Gwenn and Rick Polansky were at the lodge Tuesday afternoon. They have been playing Queen of Hearts since the game started and bought 36 tickets — $120 worth — for Friday’s drawing, they said.

“Who’s to say they can’t use an extra $300 grand?” Gwenn said with a laugh. “We would probably use it for our grandchildren’s’ college and paying off some things.”

“There’s people coming from all over” for the drawing, Gwenn said. “People are coming from other [lodges]. We know someone who flew in from Florida.”

Marascia said the Queen of Hearts game on Friday nights, which is accompanied by live music and dinner, is the biggest event at the lodge and has helped bring in new members. The lodge has grown from 700 members in 2019 to 2,130 members, Marascia said. Membership in the ‘80s peaked at around 5,000 people, he said.

The increased membership has also contributed to the lodge’s other events and activities. Since 2021, the lodge has been able to remodel its roof, its marina and its campgrounds, he said.