Queen of Hearts Raffle

The card that turns a raffle into a weekly event.

The free card draw tool below reveals one card at a time from a shuffled 54-card deck. Every reveal is verifiable. If you are running a full ongoing Queen of Hearts raffle with ticket sales and progressive jackpots that is a different conversation, and we have been having it for 20 years.

Free Card Draw Tool

Reveal the cards. See if the Queen is hiding.

Click any card to reveal it, or use Draw Random Card for the week's automated reveal. Every reveal creates a verifiable timestamped record.

Queen of Hearts 54 cards remaining
Click any card · or use Draw Random
0 of 54 cards revealed
Card Revealed
Full QoH Platform →
Verifiable reveal record: Share this link anyone can verify which card was revealed, when, and from which deck state.
Generating…
This tool is for card reveals only. It does not sell tickets, collect card selections from supporters, track jackpot contributions, or manage a multi-week progressive raffle. For a full Queen of Hearts raffle with online ticket sales, supporter card selection, automated weekly draws, and jackpot tracking visit onlinequeenofhearts.com.
How It Works

Weekly suspense. Progressive jackpots. The fundraiser people actually look forward to.

Queen of Hearts is different from every other raffle format because it doesn't end when you sell the last ticket. It ends when the right card is found. That could be week two. That could be week 22. That uncertainty is exactly what makes it work.

Here is what happens each cycle:

1

Supporters purchase tickets and select a card

Each ticket corresponds to a card in the deck. Multiple supporters can select the same card that's intentional. The card doesn't win, the ticket does. The card just determines which ticket wins. More tickets sold means more entries, not more cards.

2

One winning ticket is drawn each week

From all tickets sold for that week, one is selected at random. The card assigned to that ticket is revealed. This is where the drama lives everyone who selected that card is watching.

3

If it's the Queen of Hearts jackpot

The supporter whose ticket was drawn wins the accumulated jackpot. The raffle ends. If it's any other card, the jackpot grows and the game continues next week with the revealed card removed from the deck.

4

The jackpot builds until she's found

A percentage of each week's ticket sales rolls into the jackpot. The longer the Queen hides, the bigger the prize. We have seen jackpots grow from a few hundred dollars to over $300,000 before the Queen finally appeared.

4-step illustrated diagram showing how a Queen of Hearts raffle works: ticket selection, weekly draw, card reveal, and growing jackpot
What's Actually Possible

We have seen jackpots that made local news. And we have seen jackpots that fizzled at week three. Here is the honest version of both.

Queen of Hearts is the highest-ceiling raffle format we run. It is also the one we have to talk people out of most often because the ceiling only matters if the foundation is there.

1–53+
Weeks a Queen of Hearts can run before the card is found
$100K
Low end of jackpots we have seen grow in well-run campaigns
$300K
High end of jackpots we have seen when the momentum builds and the town gets obsessed
54
Cards in the deck (52 standard + 2 jokers). One revealed per week.
From the Raffle Hotline Real Call

A caller once reached us at week 18. Half the town was obsessed with their Queen of Hearts raffle. The other half was jealous they hadn't entered sooner. Then they hit a problem: their state permit capped the prize at $50,000. And the jackpot had officially crossed that number.

We walked them through a draw-down drawing weekly winners until the Queen was finally revealed, closing the raffle on a high note with full legal compliance and a very happy winner. It was a great problem to have. But it only worked because they called before the cap became a crisis.

The lesson: Know your permit limits before you launch. Build your exit plan into your raffle rules. When your jackpot hits the cap, you want to be ready not scrambling.

Illustration comparing organizations ready for Queen of Hearts raffle large engaged audience versus those not yet ready with a smaller supporter base
Honest Assessment

It's not for every organization. And that's okay.

Queen of Hearts is a stadium strategy. It only works if you fill enough seats to get the momentum going. We have seen the format raised to extraordinary heights and we have seen it fizzle at week three because the audience simply was not there yet.

The format works when you have a large, loyal membership or regional following. Consistent marketing capacity for weeks or months. Volunteers who can manage weekly entries and announcements. Patience because the first few weeks might be quiet. Then people start talking, the jackpot grows, local media may pick it up, and suddenly supporters are sharing your raffle link across the state.

It does not work when you have 25 people on Facebook and a goal of raising millions. We have taken that call too. More than once. The jackpot requires volume to grow. Without volume, it stalls.

If your organization is newer or your list is under a few hundred active supporters start with a traditional raffle or basket raffle. Build your audience. When your mailing list feels ready to celebrate week after week, that is when you bring out the deck.

The Full Platform

This card draw tool is the reveal. The platform is everything else.

Chance2Win's Queen of Hearts platform available at onlinequeenofhearts.com handles the full raffle operation. Here is what the free tool cannot do and the platform can.

Queen of Hearts raffle management dashboard showing the card board, progressive jackpot tracker, and weekly ticket sales chart

Online ticket sales with card selection

Supporters buy tickets online and assign each ticket to a specific card. Multiple supporters can select the same card. The system tracks every selection automatically with no manual effort.

Automated weekly drawings

The system runs the weekly draw automatically. No manual ticket pulling, no spreadsheet, no spreadsheet disaster at 11pm on a Thursday. The winner is selected, the card is revealed, the jackpot updates.

Progressive jackpot tracking

The jackpot total is calculated and displayed automatically each week as a percentage of ticket sales rolls over. Supporters can see it growing which is exactly the point.

Payment processing and digital tickets

Stripe, Square, or Authorize.net. Supporters receive digital ticket confirmations by email immediately after purchase. No manual ticket distribution, no lost receipts.

Hybrid online and in-person entries

Cash and check entries from your weekly event combine with online ticket sales in one drawing pool. This is exclusive to Chance2Win no other platform can do this. It is critical for VFW posts, fraternal organizations, and anyone who still sells tickets at the door.

Runs for 1 to 53+ weeks

The platform manages the deck state week to week, tracking which cards have been revealed and which remain. It runs as long as the Queen stays hidden one week or more than a full year.

From the Raffle Hotline

The call that explains why Queen of Hearts is not magic.

Real Call Category: Unrealistic Expectations
Caller: "We want to run a Queen of Hearts raffle and make millions."
Support: "These raffles can definitely grow large jackpots. How big is your supporter base?"
Caller: "Oh, we should do great."
Support: "How many followers or supporters do you currently have?"
Caller: "About 25 people on Facebook."
Support: "…"
Support: "Queen of Hearts raffles work best when you already have a strong following often hundreds or thousands of supporters because the jackpot builds week after week as more people participate. The first few weeks might be small. Then people start talking. The jackpot grows. More supporters join. Local media sometimes picks it up. That momentum is what creates the large jackpots people hear about."
Support: "If the audience is very small to begin with, the raffle simply doesn't get enough weekly ticket volume for the jackpot to grow."
The reality check: Queen of Hearts is one of the most powerful fundraising models we have when the organization already has a strong community following and the ability to promote week after week. These raffles require a large existing audience, consistent promotion, weekly participation, and patience as the jackpot builds. They are not magic. They are momentum. And momentum only goes in one direction: you either have enough fuel to keep it going, or you don't.
Illustration comparing a small audience where the Queen of Hearts jackpot stalls versus an engaged community where the jackpot grows week over week
Legal Language Non-Negotiable

This is not a style preference. In charitable gaming contexts, betting and wagering language is legally prohibited in most US states. Supporters select a card which means they assign their ticket to a specific card as their entry identifier. They are not predicting an outcome, wagering on odds, or placing a bet.

This distinction matters in your raffle rules, your promotional materials, your social media posts, and your weekly announcement emails. Every piece of content connected to your Queen of Hearts raffle should use "selecting a card" never "betting on," "wagering on," or "gambling on" a card.

Raffle and charitable gaming laws vary significantly by state. This is not legal advice. Before launching a Queen of Hearts raffle, verify your state's specific requirements for charitable gaming permits, prize caps, and drawing procedures. Call us at (813) 699-9325 we have fielded these questions from virtually every state and can point you toward the right questions to ask your regulator.

Common Questions

Questions we actually hear about Queen of Hearts.

A 54-card deck is placed face down. Each week, supporters buy tickets and assign each ticket to one of the 54 cards. One winning ticket is drawn at random. The card assigned to that ticket is revealed. If it is the Queen of Hearts, the supporter wins the jackpot. If it is any other card, the jackpot grows and the game continues the following week with that card removed. The raffle runs until the Queen is found which could be week two or week 38.
Yes and this is by design. Multiple supporters can select the same card. The card does not win on its own; the ticket wins. The card simply determines which tickets are eligible to win. If a supporter's ticket is drawn and their selected card is the Queen of Hearts, they win regardless of how many other supporters also selected that card.
This is more common than organizers expect especially for well-run raffles where the jackpot grows faster than anticipated. When you hit the permit cap, the correct move is a draw-down: continue drawing winning tickets weekly until the Queen is eventually revealed, which closes the raffle with full legal compliance. The right way to handle this is to know your permit limits before you launch and build an exit plan into your official raffle rules. Call us before launch we have walked many organizations through exactly this situation.
No. This tool reveals cards from a shuffled deck with a verifiable record useful for a simple weekly card reveal demonstration. The Chance2Win Queen of Hearts platform handles everything the fundraiser actually requires: online ticket sales, supporter card selection, payment processing, automated weekly drawings, progressive jackpot calculation and display, hybrid online and in-person entries, and multi-week deck management. Visit onlinequeenofhearts.com for the full platform.
Honestly, Queen of Hearts needs scale to work. The jackpot only builds if weekly ticket volume is consistent. Organizations with fewer than several hundred active, engaged supporters often find the jackpot grows too slowly to build the momentum the format depends on. If your supporter base is under 200–300 active people, consider starting with a traditional raffle or basket raffle first. Build your audience. When your mailing list feels ready to celebrate week after week, bring out the deck.