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Queen of Hearts jackpot continues to soar for tonight's draw at Barry Dyngles
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Tickets will continue to be sold today as Mahoning Valley residents get set for the next Queen of Hearts drawing at Barry Dyngles.
Officials of the pub, 1601 S. Raccoon Road, expect the jackpot to hit $1.8 million or more by the 7:30 p.m. drawing
Tickets are on sale from noon to 7 p.m. today.
Barry Dyngles general manager Doug Duganne said ticket sales have averaged about 100,000 each day leading up to tonight’s draw, including 124,000 tickets sold Thursday and 107,000 sold Wednesday. Ticket sales were 64,000 Friday and 50,000 Saturday bringing the jackpot to about $1.7 million.
In fact, he said the rule change not to require the winner to be present to win 100 percent of the jackpot “has actually increased traffic and increased sales.”
That rule change was encouraged by Austintown Township officials to help reduce the crowds during drawing nights.
Red Wanting Blue will play at 5:30 p.m., two hours before the drawing. Duganne said that is the favorite band of pub owner Shawn Hannon.
“We tried to get them here a couple times before, but it’s always been a scheduling conflict,” Duganne said.
That concert was OK’d by township officials during a meeting Thursday afternoon with Hannon. Even though the concert was added Wednesday night – two days after Austintown trustees unanimously approved the game to continue – it fell underneath that Monday vote to waive special permits, such as ones needed for an outdoor concert.
“We’re taking it on a case-by-case, week-by-week basis” with the pub, said Jim Davis, Austintown trustee.
Raccoon Road could be closed Sunday night – Austintown police will determine whether to shut the road down based on crowd size, Davis said.
Duganne reflected on the impact of what began as a marketing tool and has become a festival-like atmosphere when a card is drawn each week.
“It’s amazing – it’s actually been a blessing. We have gained so many new customers,” Duganne said.
He also said the increase in traffic has led to the pub hiring 20 new employees.
There are seven spots left on the 54-card board: 15, 27, 30, 34, 48, 51, and 52. Those wanting to play pay $1 for a ticket, write their name, the space they believe the queen of hearts is hiding under and then a phone number to contact them.
ODDS OF WINNING
The Vindicator spoke with Dr. G. Jay Kerns, an associate math professor at Youngstown State University, about probabilities headed into today’s drawing. He earned his doctorate in mathematics with a statistics specialization.
After researching the game itself, Kerns said he began to use the game as a teaching tool in his statistics and probability courses.
“One of the biggest challenges, and the holy grail of any education, is to try to get kids interested in the subject on their own, so with this subject that interest is already there,” Kerns said of the Queen of Hearts’ impact for his students. “Something like this is a wonderful thing for somebody like me because it interests people, and it’s an exciting game.”
Kerns developed a website where a person can plug in numbers, such as how many tickets they bought or plan to buy, and calculate the probability of winning.
His site allows you to enter how many cards are left on the board (seven before today’s drawing), number of tickets everybody else buys (800,000 was used by The Vindicator as an assumption) and then last week’s jackpot, which was more than $1.23 million (1,230,000 is entered).
The expected probability that somebody wins the game this weekend is 14.3 percent. The odds against you winning the game, with just one ticket purchased, are 5,600,006:1.
“The way to increase your chance to win is buying more tickets, but you can’t control how many tickets everyone else buys. ... The more tickets other people buy, the less chance you have,” he said.
If you want to see your odds, Kern’s website is gjkerns.shinyapps.io/QueenOfHearts .