Students can engage in a night of gambling, live music and platters of food this weekend in a revamped version of the Hill’s annual Casino Night.
The Covel Grand Horizon Ballroom in Covel Commons will house the annual Casino Night on Saturday at 8 p.m.
The four-hour program includes gambling games such as blackjack, roulette and craps. Students who win a game will earn raffle tickets, which they may then submit toward different prizes.
Students living on campus can enter the event for free, while students who live off campus can enter after paying a $5 fee, said Abigail Johnson, a second-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student and program co-director for the On-Campus Housing Council.
The budget for this year’s casino night is about $19,000, Johnson said. The Core Program Fund provides $6,000 of the budget, and the rest comes from the OCHC fund, which is subsidized by a part of the quarterly student housing fees.
The OCHC aims to make the event feel more like a club or lounge experience by moving the live entertainment to the center of the room and putting up more elaborate decorations, Johnson said.
Johnson said she and her fellow programmers are aiming for this environment because it may otherwise be inaccessible to students living on the Hill.
“Blackjack’s fun, but when you add the entertainment and the music and the dancing and the lights and the color it mixes up the environment and makes it a more fun space,” Johnson said.
She said one way by which they plan to do this is by bringing the live music inside, so students can be in constant contact with the entertainment.
“So you’re playing cards … and then all of a sudden the lights go dim and the spotlight goes up on the stage, and someone starts performing,” Johnson said.
Student groups including Random Voices, YOUTHphonics and Synthesis Dance Theater will perform in the Grand Horizon Ballroom, Johnson said.
There will also be a show by hypnotist and mentalist Brian Imbus, who performed this fall on the Hill and drag queen bingo, which will feature drag queens leading bingo on the second floor of Covel Commons, Johnson said.
Volunteers will help give out prizes throughout the evening, which include gift cards and Apple products, said Brittany Vasquez, a fourth-year anthropology student and program co-director for the OCHC.
The blackjack dealers will all be student volunteers, while professional dealers will run the roulette and craps tables.
While many of the students who attend the event are first- and second-years, the appeal of being a dealer has made it a tradition for some students.
This year will mark the fourth time Aaron Liao, a fourth-year biology student, will deal blackjack at casino night.
He said he keeps coming back because he likes the atmosphere of the event and the enjoys working at blackjack tables.
“It’s hectic, but in a good way,” he said. “It keeps me on my toes, and I like taking people’s money,” he added, laughing.