'Casino Night' to benefit local charity

New Mexico State University students will have a chance to play casino games and win a trip to Las Vegas while earning money for a local charity. Garcia Hall Residence Center will host "Casino Night" on Friday, and for a $4 entrance fee, people from both on and off campus will receive artificial money to play casino games from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Participants also will be eligible to participate in a prize auction afterward, said Phil McDaniel, Garcia Hall manager. Laura Drangmeister, programming assistant at Garcia Hall, said participants will be able to trade in the artificial money for vouchers to use in the auction. McDaniel said Jardín de los Niños, a local charity that offers daycare to the children of homeless families, will receive the proceeds from the game night. Choices, a student group on campus that promotes alcohol responsibility, is scheduled to serve "mocktails," nonalcoholic cocktails, during the evening. McDaniel said the event will offer roulette, poker, black jack, craps and bingo. The auction at the end of the night will feature such items as a two-night stay for two people at Golden Gate Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, gift certificates for meals in the Las Cruces area, and a $25 gift certificate to the NMSU Bookstore, McDaniel said. He said he expects to receive prize donations until a few days before Casino Night. "I think it's valuable to the residents and the community because it's a fun thing to do, and it brings everyone together," Drangmeister said. "It's also benefiting a worthy cause." "We also want our students to get the sense that our community is bigger than just campus," McDaniel said. Planners chose Jardín de los Niños because they wanted to support a charity based in Las Cruces, Drangmeister said. This, she said, was a change from the past and a worthwhile cause. Drangmeister said the Garcia Hall Council and the NMSU Department of Housing and Residential Life are sponsoring the event. McDaniel said businesses that donate prizes to the event receive invitations, and he hopes to have participants from on and off campus. "Our goal is just to get as many people here as we can," he said. "We'd love to get over 200 (people) this year." Drangmeister said organizers have worked on the program since the middle of last semester, and about 30 people have helped organize the event. Among other things, they wrote more than 150 letters asking for prize donations, she said. McDaniel said this will be the 13th annual Casino Night. The event raised between $500 and $700 last year, she said.

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out