ACUB hosts Casino Night

LIATHANO RAMIEREZ
PHOTOGRAPHER

JORDAN FOX
COPY EDITOR

On March 14 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., the Alma College Union Board (ACUB) hosted Casino Night for the second year in a row. The event featured live table games such as Roulette, Craps, Texas Hold ‘em and more. 

The event was a clear hit, and there were over twenty students lined up outside of the Tyler Van Dusen Commons well before the doors opened. Upon entry, students were handed ten tokens – twenty for the first twenty students who arrived – that could be used to play the various casino-inspired games or traded in for raffle tickets.

Raffle prizes included a workout basket featuring an Apple watch, a self-care basket with several Lego sets, a school supplies basket with an iPad and Apple pen and more. Students could trade in their tokens whenever they wanted in exchange for the same number of tickets to put in the raffle of their choosing. 

The lucky winners included Carly Buchanan (‘24), Oshyn Carnes (‘24), Elena Psetas (‘27), Chris Edwards (‘24), Tristan Salazar (‘25) and Sam Broadwell (‘27) who were notified of the good news via email afte the event. 

There was a fun-filled environment in the room as students from all sorts of backgrounds gathered to play games and compete with each other in hopes of taking home a big prize. Because the event was free and required nothing other than showing up, everyone on campus who wanted to attend was able to take part. This event was also a way for students to take a break from the stress of their academic schedules and hang out with friends.

ACUB puts on a variety of events like this one throughout the academic year; some of their past events include a glow party, lip-sync battle, bingo nights and more. But they would not be made possible without the efforts of the students behind the organization, who do everything from coming up with the idea to working the actual event. 

“We begin by labeling a budget for the event and identifying the major costs and where to distribute the money that we do have. We then brainstorm ideas for the setting, prizes, marketing and staffing needs. We designate certain members to contacting vendors and price matching them… we then shop for the prizes, make sure there are no loose ends… and then put on the event,” said Toby Layson (‘26), one of ACUB’s event staff. 

Because Casino Night is possibly their largest event of the year, it took extra planning and coordination to be a success. “We’ve been planning since about the end of last semester into this semester just getting everything set [such as] picking the vendor, picking out the prizes [and] budgeting that out; [this year we] planned it [to be] St. Patrick’s Day themed so ‘testing your luck,’” said Rebecca Kobylas (‘25), President of ACUB.

Perhaps the one thing that all ACUB staff have in common is their love for putting on fun events for all of campus. “It’s really fun… being able to watch the event that you spent weeks or sometimes months planning and then see it [come] to life and see [everyone] enjoying it. Casino Night specifically is a really big one that we spend a lot of time planning and so when it kind of all comes into fruition it’s really awesome [and] really special,” said Elaina Gross (‘24), another ACUB event staff member. 

If you missed out on Casino Night or just want to attend another of ACUB’s exciting events, there will be the opportunity to watch a live drag show on March 21 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Opera House.