The progressive jackpot in the Catch the Ace raffle run by Royal Canadian Legion Burlington Branch 60 has passed $50,000 heading into its Week 24 draw on Sunday, Nov. 8. The Legion says that is the biggest pot in the branch's history.
In Catch the Ace, when you buy a ticket, you pick one of 52 numbered envelopes, each hiding a playing card. Each week one ticket is drawn, and its holder wins the weekly prize. Then that ticket's envelope is opened: if it holds the Ace of Spades, the holder also takes the progressive jackpot. If not, the card is thrown out and the jackpot keeps growing.
The draws started May 31, and the ace has stayed hidden every week since. Each miss takes another envelope off the table, so fewer remain for Sunday. The jackpot was already over $50,000 for the Week 23 draw on Sunday, Nov. 1, when that week's ticket holder took home the weekly prize of $2,030.
The raffle is also a fundraiser for the branch, Burlington's local arm of the national veterans' organization. The Legion says half of all ticket sales go to local veterans and hometown charities, such as the Burlington Humane Society, and that the money backs the Legion's community work in the city.
The Burlington Humane Society, one of the beneficiaries, says ticket purchases also help pay for urgent building repairs, veteran programs and community services at Branch 60.
The raffle is licensed by the AGCO, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, which regulates lotteries and charitable gaming in the province, under licence RAF1528479.
Tickets for Sunday's draw are sold online at PlayLegionAce.ca. Sales close Sunday at 6:45 p.m., and the draw happens live at 7 p.m.
