Show us the money

Imagine this scenario:

An overflowing crowd is rocking to the music of Red Wanting Blue, getting hyped up for tonight’s Queen of Hearts drawing at Barry Dyngles pub in Austintown, when a Brink’s armored truck pulls up to the front door. Heavily armed security guards jump out, hustle to the rear, open the heavy steel doors and reveal a bank safe on casters.

And as the safe is rolled down a ramp and maneuvered into the pub, a limousine arrives, causing a stir, and out jumps – you guessed it – television personality Geraldo Rivera of gangster Al Capone vault fame.

On April 21, 1986, Rivera hosted a two-hour live TV special called “The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults.” The special centered on the opening of a secret vault once owned by Capone.

With all the drama that television could muster, Rivera provided commentary in a hushed voice while the vault was opened. Surprise! It was empty except for debris.

QUITE A SCENE

But today, with the crowd at Barry Dyngles looking on with bated breath, Rivera opens the bank safe to reveal stacks of dollar bills totaling a whopping $1.8 million.

The crowd goes wild, the armed guards and other off-duty police officers form a cordon around the safe, and the owner of the Austintown bar and eatery, Shawn Hannon announces, “At 7:30 this evening this cash could belong to you if your ticket reveals the Queen of Hearts.”

OK, that scenario isn’t going to be played out today, as the search for the Queen enters its umpteenth month.

But as the weeks have gone by and the number of cards on the display board has dwindled from 54 to seven without the winner being selected, this question does come to mind: Where’s the money?

Barry Dyngles officials will only say the loot is in a safe place, and that the winner, if there is one tonight, will be taken to the location to claim the jackpot.

It’s a sure bet (yes, this column is about gambling) that most people who are participating in the Queen of Hearts game have never seen $1 million-plus in dollar bills.

Correction: Most members of the most honorable profession on earth – journalism – have never seen that amount of money. The same, however, can’t be said for the growing ranks of corrupt government officials in the Mahoning Valley who have been lured over to the dark side by wealthy individuals bearing “gifts.”

MOOLAH ON DISPLAY

So, wouldn’t it be grand if Hannon decided to bring the money to his establishment on Raccoon Road and put it on display? There shouldn’t be any concern about a possible heist because not only will be there more than enough security – yes, a Brinks truck would be a nice touch – but the prospective robber would have no where to run or hide.

Why should Hannon even consider displaying the money for all to see? Because such a move would reassure the press, in particular, that the absence of oversight of the Queen of Hearts game by local and state officials should not be cause for concern.

To be sure, the “gray area” of the law that this and other such gambling events fall under has prompted questions from individuals with connections to “legal” gambling in Ohio.

But state government officials insist that so long as all the money generated from the sale of tickets is kept separate from the establishment’s revenue, there is no violation of state statutes.

The officials did say, however, that Barry Dyngles must keep good records of how much money has been collected, how many tickets have been sold and that all tickets match the stubs that are supposed to be retained.

There is no indication the state will conduct any kind of a formal review of the game if someone wins the jackpot tonight, and the amount approaches $2 million.

But that doesn’t mean an independent audit should not be conducted. Barry Dyngles’ owner, Shawn Hannon, would ingratiate himself with the public and with local and state officials if he hired a reputable auditing firm to conduct a full review of the records and count the money in the jackpot.

Then again, if there’s a winner tonight, things will go back to normal, and Barry Dyngles will return to being a neighborhood establishment with a loyal clientele.