Power 91

Students normally travel to Mesquite, Nev. or Las Vegas to gamble, but Thursday night the casino was brought to them.

The Ballroom was full of music, blackjack, poker, roulette, craps tables, dealers and a virgin mini bar.

Students started out with a value of $500 in chips. If their money was gambled away students had an opportunity to gain more by playing Wii Bowling. Whatever the ending score of the game was, students received that amount in chips.

“We wanted students to be entertained the whole time,” Alicyn Dyer, Thor Corps President said.

Raffle tickets were being sold for $500 in chips. At the end of the night, tickets were drawn for prizes donated by the bookstore.

The Student Activities Board and Freshman Board sponsored the event hiring Common Cents Casino Parties to train the dealers.

The dealers were members of SUUSA, The Freshman Board and volunteers including one professor from SUU.

I enjoy helping out because I want to make the (college) experience as fun for (students) as it was for me when I went to school (at SUU),” Joe Willis, an English professor said. “Plus it was nice to get away from papers.”

Willis used to be a dealer in Reno, Nev. and noticed a difference right away. The main difference was at a Casino Night event the dealer’s job is to help people have a good time, at a real casino it is to get people to have a good time, but money is a higher priority.

“(At the real casino) we were told to distract people,” Willis said. “Then they paid attention to the conversation instead of the game.”

Another difference is the lack on tension with every hand.

“There sometimes would be a weird fear after the cards were dealt,” Willis said.

Some people would gamble their life savings and Willis said he would feel guilty for taking their money, even though it was his job. At the event Willis said he could just deal the cards and enjoy the game.

“It was all the thrill of winning and losing a fortune like a real casino with out the pain of having to pay it back,” Jeff Kinsel, a Grants Office employee, said.

Dryer said the event was a “big success” and all the tables were full the entire night. This year’s Casino Night was bigger than last years with over 500 people showing up.

“I am really happy with the turn out, we are going to do (this event) again,” Kaytlin Yates, freshman board adviser said.

Wendy Bauman, Common Cents dealer, said SUU was the best school turnout they have been to in Utah.

“It was awesome, nobody was complaining, cheating or trying to steal the chips like other schools,” Bauman said.

One of the schools Common Cents went to, over $500 in chips were stolen.

Dyer said the main idea behind the event was to get students to interact and a chance to meet new people.

“We wanted to do something different, get people to socialize and take a break from hard work,” Yates said.

SUUSA StAB is in charge of Thunder Thursday events, which are the first and third Thursdays of every month.