Ohio’s Ripley One Tri-State man was the fortunate winner of the last Queen of Hearts drawing, which took place at Brookies Bar in Ripley on Wednesday night. Thousands of people nervously awaited the announcement of whether they would be $1.65 million richer.
The bar’s weekly raffle winner was Ronnie Lang, 69, of Georgetown, Ohio. Before working as a maintenance man for the last four years, he farmed tobacco for decades. After winning the money, Lang stated that he intends to retire.
Watch the video below to hear from Lang after he won the jackpot:
As soon as the winner was revealed, Lang informed us, “I don’t know what I’m going to do (with the money), but I’ll put it to good use.” “I play the lottery a lot and never hit, but something like this I waited in line for the past two days, 8 hours.”
Starting at $1.3 million on Wednesday morning, the prize grew to $1.65 million. Ninety percent of that will go to Lang. The pot for the subsequent raffle will be started with the remaining 10%.
Below, you can see the moment Lang found out he had won the lottery:
Lang claimed that on Wednesday, he and his spouse, Sue, purchased the winning ticket. According to Lang, they bought raffle tickets for the game for a total of $3,000.
The game’s deck’s 50th card contained the winning Queen of Hearts. Only six of his tickets, according to Lang, had that number written on them.
A few blocks away, the pair was seated near their vehicle when Lang’s name was called. It was a frantic scramble to traverse the crowd and the distance in the five minutes allotted to reach the drawing tent, according to Lang.
Several more tickets were selected prior to Lang’s victory, but they were either unsuccessful or duplicates of previously flipped numbers. There were four possible numbers for the Queen of Hearts going into the night: 36, 37, 39, and 50.
What began as a friendly bar game swiftly spread throughout the entire region.
Deanna Cooper, who has been handling ticket sales for months, stated, “I mean, everyone wants to win, and a lot of them already have the money spent,” “They’re just happy.”
WATCH: We visited Brookies to observe directly why so many people are prepared to wait for a chance to win the lottery.
After purchasing a ticket, customers write their name, phone number, and the number of a card on their display board on the ticket. After selecting a ticket at random, the bar flips over the card bearing the ticket’s number. The owner of the ticket wins if that card is the Queen of Hearts.
“It takes one ticket to win,” Cheryl Saylor, a customer, informed us prior to the drawing that evening. “It could be mine, you never know.”
For months, Saylor had been spending forty dollars a week on tickets.
After hearing that the drawing would be worth more than $1 million, she was one of many who had been waiting in line for hours every day this week.
“We went, ‘Oh no,'” admitted Saylor. “It’s fantastic, but we didn’t have to deal with all of these individuals, you know. It like a pleasant small street party.
Sandy Bonar and Kallie Thatcher were ready with lawn chairs and water to drink.
Thatcher remarked, “We were No. 3 and No. 4 in line,” “There was only two people ahead of us, but it’s been really nice because everybody has gotten along and it’s a good community.”
People were asked what they would do if they were the fortunate winner. Responses ranged widely, from supporting their family to caring for people in need.
On Monday, Brookies was forced to close its ticket sales due to the overwhelming demand. Cooper stated that they are drawing till there is a single fortunate winner tonight now that they are back on the road.
“Good luck to everyone, as long as it goes to someone in need,” stated Thatcher.
