For fifty Tuesdays, a locked bank bag has sat in a corner of a downtown Sioux Falls taproom holding fifty-four sealed envelopes, and for fifty Tuesdays the crowd has leaned in to watch one of them get torn open. Inside each envelope is a single playing card drawn from a deck that includes two jokers. Only one of them — the Queen of Hearts — ends the game. The rest just send the jackpot higher.
That is the premise of "Find the Queen of Hearts," a progressive 50/50 raffle run by Dakota Dachshund Rescue at Remedy Brewing Company, and it has turned an ordinary weeknight at the brewery into one of the more improbable spectacles in South Dakota. As of the most recent drawing, the pot had climbed past $150,000, with the eventual winner taking half and the rescue keeping the other half. With only five cards left unopened, the odds have narrowed to the point where the question in the room is no longer whether someone will win, but when.
The game is simple enough to explain in a sentence and slow enough to sustain a year of suspense. Players buy tickets for the weekly drawing; each ticket corresponds to a chance to pick an envelope. If the card inside isn't the Queen of Hearts, the envelope is removed, the jackpot rolls over, and the whole thing starts again the following week. Because the deck began with 54 cards — a standard 52 plus two jokers — the game could theoretically run for more than a year before the queen surfaced. Organizers have leaned into that. "Personally, I would like to see it go out to 50 cards or something like that," board member Rodger Lacy told KELOLAND, acknowledging that a long-running game means a bigger jackpot and more money for the dogs.
That money matters more than the novelty suggests. Dakota Dachshund Rescue is an all-volunteer, foster-based 501(c)(3) — it has no kennels, and every dog it takes in lives with a family until adoption. The organization pulls dachshunds, dachshund mixes, and other small breeds from situations where they aren't thriving: owner surrenders, strays, animals that need more veterinary care than a shelter can provide. The costs add up fast. Lacy has said the rescue spends roughly $9,000 a month on average on vet bills, a figure that includes routine dentals alongside the occasional catastrophic case — a dog that turns out to need heart surgery, for instance, and suddenly represents thousands of dollars the adoption fee will never recoup.
The rescue's fundraising has historically leaned on events that fit its personality. Its biggest annual moneymaker has been the Wiener Dog Race held during a Sioux Falls Stampede hockey game, a tradition that drew thousands of spectators and, in a typical year, raised several thousand dollars. The Queen of Hearts game has dwarfed that. When it launched, the jackpot started at just over $10,000, seeded in part by local sponsors. By week 35 it had reached $45,000. By the time it entered its final stretch it had tripled again.
Remedy Brewing was a natural host. The brewery occupies the historic 8th & Railroad building in the heart of downtown, a space that once held a warren of offices before being gutted and rebuilt into a taproom with sixteen taps and a converted loading dock for a patio. It bills itself as both family- and dog-friendly, and its events coordinator, Aaron Nelson, has been blunt about why the partnership made sense. "We have a passion for dogs around here," he told KELOLAND. "We have probably the most pet friendly place in downtown." When the rescue approached the brewery about hosting a weekly drawing, Nelson said, "it just completely makes sense for us and who we are as a company."
The Tuesday-night gatherings have become something more than a raffle. Foster dogs attend the drawings, and the exposure has translated directly into adoptions — Lacy has credited the events with an uptick in applications and said many of the rescue's recent adoptions came directly from people who met a dog at Remedy. The room itself has taken on a life of its own. "It's pure energy in here now," Nelson said. "It's absolutely insane. Last week, there was barely a spot to sit down at."
For all the buildup, the mechanics of the final weeks are straightforward. Tickets can be purchased online until 3:30 p.m. on the day of the drawing, or in person at Remedy until 7:00 p.m. The drawing itself is scheduled for 7:11 p.m., and attendees do not need to be present to win — a detail that matters when the prize is large enough to change a life. With five cards remaining, the jackpot sits somewhere between $70,000 and $75,000 for the winner, depending on how the final week's ticket sales land.
And then there is the ending the rescue has already written. According to Dakota Dachshund Rescue's own account, the Queen of Hearts was eventually found hiding in envelope 19, capping a run of 50 weeks. The jackpot at the moment of the winning draw stood at $166,154 — half to the winner, half to the rescue, and a meaningful dent in a year's worth of veterinary bills. The organization marked the occasion with characteristic understatement: "All the dogs are dancing with excitement that their beloved Queen of Hearts is reunited with them."
For now, though, the game is still live, the bag is still locked, and five envelopes are still waiting. On a Tuesday night in downtown Sioux Falls, a room full of people will watch someone tear one open.