'A Great Run': Queen Of Hearts Finally Found At McNally's

CHICAGO, IL — At least for awhile, Thursday nights will not be the same in the Beverly/Mount Greenwood/Morgan Park neighborhood. The elusive queen has been found in the McNally's Queen of Hearts game. After more than 40 weeks of rollovers, the queen of hearts was found hidden underneath the #42 card at McNally's during Thursday night's raffle drawing.

"It was a great run," a spokesman for the McNally family told Path Friday afternoon after he updated the sign outside the bar that's been a mainstay at 112th and Western for decades. "We thank the community for their support. It was a fun summer."

The increasingly high jackpot in the game became the talk of the neighborhood in the summer of 2018. Dozens of residents flocked to the bar every Thursday night, as the pot would continue to rollover week after week after week.

It was known since the beginning of the game that St. Cajetan School, located just around the corner from McNally's, would split the pot with the eventual winner. Competitors put down $5 for a ticket, with the jackpot getting so high that elected city officials had to enact an ordinance change to allow the payout to be up to $2 million.

The lucky winner, according to the McNally family spokesman, is a man who has ties to St. Cajetan. His name hasn't been released, but a social media post from the bar Thursday night indicated that he was humbled by his good fortune.

His good fortune comes at the tune of some $1.3 million, as the jackpot reached more than $2.6 million.

Every Thursday night during the summer, McNally's would share a funny "rollover" meme featuring Queen Elizabeth. The sign outside the establishment would make other references to how hard she was to find.

But on this Friday, it simply said "The Queen is Gone But Will Return," with "We & St. Cajetan Thank You" on the other side.

The popularity means the next Queen of Hearts game at McNally's will start "within the next week or so," the spokesman said. A Facebook post from the bar confirms the start of the next game will be on Sept. 8, with the initial jackpot at $100,000.

Photo by Tim Moran / Patch