Boston University became a destination on the Las Vegas Strip Saturday night as the School of Management Student Government turned the George Sherman Union Metcalf Ballroom into a casino for the college’s annual fundraising event.
This year, with help from more than 600 students, SMG raised an estimated $4,000 for the local charity, Camp Starfish, which works to help kids struggling with emotional and behavioral problems.
The Metcalf Ballroom was decorated with large cardboard dice, a Boston Terrier Ice Sculpture, “Casino Night” written in white Christmas lights on the wall and gaming tables covering nearly every inch of the ballroom floor with jazz music playing all evening.
“This is definitely a better venue than last year,” SMG senior and committee chairperson Caroline Boulanger said of the 2004 event, held at the Fuller Building. “There is more of a casino atmosphere in this room.”
Each attendee was given a souvenir cup with casino chips totaling $20,000 in fake money as they entered the casino. Students could play blackjack, roulette, craps and wheel games, brought in by Vegas Time Associates.
“Craps is the best game,” Vegas Time Manager Greg Ocnos said.
SMG sophomore Emily Gullick said she learned how to play craps from Ocnos, who said she “was playing by the numbers.”
“I made up for everything I lost earlier by playing craps,” Gullick said.
The event is a campus-wide function that has been going on for about 10 years, SMG Student Government President Sean Dulake said. All of the proceeds from the event will go to Camp Starfish, which has been the charity for the past three years.
“It is great for the SMG community to put on an event like this,” he said.
Camp Starfish is an overnight camp located in southern New Hampshire. Each camper is paired with a staff person for the three-week session. The camp gives out full scholarships to some campers to help pay for a session’s $3,000 cost.
“We cater to their needs,” said Camp Starfish Executive Director Todd Zeff. “We feel really fortunate to be the beneficiary of the Casino Night.”
At the end of the night, gamers cashed in their chips for a voucher or raffle tickets. The vouchers were good for bidding on auction items and the raffle tickets were put into the envelope that had the prize that the student wanted a chance at winning. Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore auctioned off all of the items and gave out the raffle prizes.
In an attempt to win one of the big ticket prizes, College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Jatin Bhagat said he played blackjack most of the night.
“All I want is the free semester of books and the iPod,” he said, adding that although he left empty-handed, he enjoyed the event.
The other coveted auction item that most students had their eyes on was the Xbox 360.
“There are five of us who are trying to win the Xbox, we probably have about 2.5 million dollars [in chips],” SMG senior Matt Iandolo said.
At the end of the night Iandolo and his friends had over $3 million when they cashed out, allowing them to bid out other contenders for the iPod video system.
The highest bids were for the semester of text books and the Xbox, as each went for $4 million in chips.
Another group of six friends pooled their winnings and got 208 raffle tickets. They won three “Nite on the Town” raffle prize packages, which included entertainment tickets and restaurant gift certificates.
“We could share the prizes and spend more time with each other,” SMG senior Jenna Smith said.