A "Night at the Casino" Gala
Come as fancy as you want to be.
NO! Perhaps the most important thing to realize is that we are NOT running an actual casino. You do NOT play with real money at the tables, nor can you give staff members any real money at the gaming tables or elsewhere.
Real Money vs. “Casino Cash”
When you enter the Gala, you'll check-in and receive "casino cash" in the form of a $500 bill. One bill is included in the price of admission, but you can also purchase additional bills as an add-on to your admission ticket.
Casino Chips
Once the gaming begins, you can walk up to your favorite table and hand your $500 (or more) in "casino cash" to the dealer, who will in turn exchange this money for casino chips. The casino chips are clearly marked with denominations that range from $25 to $10,000, and each denomination has a different color so you can easily tell each one apart. Typically, once you hand in their "casino cash" to the dealer, you receive a combination of $25 chips and $100 chips to start. Because the smallest chips are $25 denominations, $25 usually serves as the minimum bet at most tables. Once you start getting involved in the action, your stack of $25 and $100 chips might start getting larger and larger, at which point the dealer at their table might "color them up" and exchange their smaller denomination chips for larger-valued chips. In this way, as you go from table to table, you're not necessarily carrying an unwieldy amount of chips.
What If You Runs Out of Chips?
If you hit on a losing streak and run out of all your chips and "casino cash" before the end of the party, you can always go back to your cashier and buy more "casino cash" to exchange for casino chips.
What and How Long Do We Play the Games?
The Gala includes three hours of gaming time on Blackjack, Craps, Poker (Texas Hold 'Em), and Roulette tables.
Cashout – Converting Chips Into Raffle Tickets
As the gaming time draws to a close, the dealers will announce the last hand, the last spin of the wheel, and the last throw of the dice. Guests will then be instructed to go back to their favorite table and turn in their casino chips. At this point, each dealer will "cash everyone out," meaning that they'll count up everyone's winnings in chips and convert these into raffle tickets at a rate of one raffle ticket per $500 in chips, with rounding up as is needed. The simple idea is that the more chips you've won over the course of the night, the more raffle tickets you'll earn. For example, if someone simply breaks even and ends up with $1,000 in chips, they would earn two raffle tickets. Alternatively, if someone has $1,100 in chips, they would earn three raffle tickets.
What Do Guests Win?
After all this you might be asking, "If no one is playing for real money, why should anyone take the gaming seriously? And what are these tickets for?" In one word: PRIZES! At this final point of the event, we will conclude with a drawing for several exciting prizes.
