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Printer-Friendly ModeCasino Night draws large student crowd
February 26, 2007 —
Students had a chance to sharpen their gambling skills and win prizes at Casino Night, the latest program put on by the University Residence Association and Valley Nights.
To put on a bigger Casino Night than the one at Fresh Start last fall, URA teamed up with Valley Nights.
"It's a lot better than last year," said Gladwin sophomore Ben Younkin.
Blackjack, Dirty Queen, Texas Hold'em, Let it Ride, slot machines, BINGO, and various dice and wheel games were offered to students.
Students gambled to earn chips to exchange for tickets to win a variety of prizes, with the grand prize being a Soaring Eagle Casino package. Other prizes included a television, a poker package, $150 cash, DVDs, and a variety of gift certificates.
"It's pretty fun, it's something new," said Lake City sophomore Brandon McGiness.
Corinna Holz, a sophomore from Bad Axe, won the Soaring Eagle Casino package.
"I was really excited, I never win anything," said Holz, who plans to take a weekend off work to use her prize.
If attendance was any indicator of the night's success, the 300 students who showed up proved that it was successful indeed.
"I think it was pretty successful," said Alan Burman, URA's Vice President of Programming, who also mentioned that the target audience was 200.
Janelle Hemingway, director of Student Life and co-advisor of Valley Nights, agreed. "I think everyone is really pleased with it," she said.
Burman thanked all the volunteers from URA, Valley Nights, Alpha Pi Omega, and various other students from around campus.
The jobs of the volunteers included dealing, distributing tickets, helping with the food and acting as the casino floor servers. But just because they were working, did not mean they didn't have fun.
Junior Nicole Nagy, who was dealing Dirty Queen, said, "It's a lot of fun to watch people win."