The ABC rooms of the Lankford Student Union were transformed into a fun casino where Longwood students could spend the night gambling on Friday, Nov. 1.
Upon walking into the casino, students were given a box of chips to place their bets with, provided by Lancer Productions who put together the event. No real money was used for gambling.
The room was set up with dim lighting and upbeat music to set the mood for the event. Tables were set up with different casino games and one to two Lancer Productions members working each table. The games included Blackjack, Poker, Craps, Texas Hold ‘Em and Roulette. There were also a couple slot machines that took tokens handed out by Lancer Productions.
Talking about where the idea for Casino Night came from, Jeffrey Reason, one of the organizers of the event, said, “We did it Parent’s Weekend last year. And it was a pretty good success, so we decided to do it again this year.”
He continued, “I think it was just an event that seemed like a lot of students would have an interest in. And, as we can tell from in there, a lot of kids do actually know how to do the dice rolling and cards and stuff.”
As the night began, there seemed to be some confusion at several of the tables. Many students who showed up to gamble did not know the rules of the games and some of the Lancer Productions members running the tables were still learning as well. As the night progressed, though, the rules became clearer, and the games ran more smoothly.
According to Reason, the card games were the easiest to pick up the rules for. Roulette and Craps required a little more time and practice.
The card games appeared to be the most popular among the students who turned up for the event.
Blackjack, where the goal is to get as close to 21 as possible without going over, seemed to always have a large crowd around the table; though not as many, Poker and Texas Hold ‘Em had a lot of players throughout the night as well. The point of these games is simply to have a better hand than the dealer.
Roulette is where the dealer spins a ball on the wheel and the game participants have to place bets and predict where the ball will land. This table had its own chips that you had to play with by “purchasing” them with your other chips.
Craps is a dice-throwing game, and if you roll a seven or an 11 on your first roll, you win automatically. This game was the one that seemed to be the most confusing, both to the players and the people running the game.
Senior Camille Giles said, “I thought [Casino Night] was pretty fun. After we learned the rules, it was pretty cool.” She said that it is an event she would choose to go to again “if it was a little bit more organized.”
Giles explained that she chose to go to Casino Night because she “saw a flyer at the last event they had, the carnival on Brock Commons last week … for Lancer Madness.”
According to Reason, Casino Night had a great turnout, and he would consider the event a success. He said, “I want to thank my whole entire staff at Lancer Productions. They’ve done a great job, and I couldn’t do it without them.”
