Casino Night- Good or bad Fundraiser?

[SmithWest]

This is a student under smiths account. We are a rookie team and were thinking about some fundraising ideas and wanted to know what the FIRST community thought about a Casino Night.

[Urban Hawk]

Well if your fundrasing that probably means you dont have alot of money. The problem with casino night is it is the eqivelent of gambling your money. None of you probably work in an actual casiino so you probably don't know they ways in which they opperate. They tend to have profesionals at each table so itll be hard to match that. Besides if you dont have much money then a casino really wont be much of a help because what can be gained is so low due to limited funds. In my opinion, i would say casino night would be a bad idea. Why not instead try to do a raffel... if you can get enough people to pertisipate you can earn alot of money though one.

[Francis-134]

From past experiences, a casino night can be viable. I can assume that this would not be actual gambling; more like you have your "casino" then the person with the most chips at the end wins $X where X is less than the money you took in. Other options that I have heard that are similar to this include a Texas Holdem' tournament which would run under a similar system ($50 prize, $100 prize etc.).

As far as the potential "moral" issues, I see no problem as this is just a fund raiser, not an organized permanent casino where really, everyone wins.

[Urban Hawk]

P.S....
Make sure gambling is legal where u are.

[basicxman]

lol I can just see that simpsons episode happening

[Taylor]

Check with your school and the law. Back a hundred years ago when I was working in radio, we had to be very careful with our contests - the raffle/lottery/gambling laws are very precise and troublesome. If people win or lose money, you've most likely got a problem. However, if people pay an entry fee, "gamble" with meaningless tokens, and could win nonmonetary prizes, you may be okay, with proper precautions.

[cardinalman86]

i don't know how it is in other states, but in Indiana, as long as u use chips and not money, it doesn't matter. so all u have to do is have a buy in and use chips(*these are kinda expensive though) and everything should be ok. that is a really good idea though.

[Nathans]

One of our yearly fundraisers is a Monte Carlo night. The gambling is for raffle tickets, and we have dinner and a silent auction. We charge $25 to get in, and it's a fairly effective fundraiser.

[NoSkaOnTheRadio]

Hey, if it makes the money...

...but seriously, if there's a lot of interest you should totally go for it. Offerring robotics related prizes is probably a good way to go, as well; it would be sort of like a raffle.

[Stillen]

I'd check with your school administration first. I'm assuming gambling during school times are off limits as is on school grounds. And since it's a "school" function the same rules should apply..... And how does the "GP" fall under the promotion of gambling.

[Lord Byron]

a lot of schools ban any kind of gambling. i wouldn't recomend it unless you know for sure its okay, and you have a very good understanding of how a casino works. if i was you i'd just do a raffle.

[ChrisMcK2186]

As far as schools not allowing gambling, the senior class @ my school every year has a party where you pay an entrance fee, get a certain number of chips, and cash them in @ the end of the night for prizes, not unlike Chuck E. Cheese's.

The goal of it is to bring money in to the team, so any prizes should be fairly cheap, with maybe one or two sizable prizes, i.e. gameboy or walkman. Keep it simple and have a good time.

Chris McKenzie
2186

PS> do check with your school administration though.

[Jon Stratis]

After checking local laws and with your school officials, a casino night idea can be a great way to earn money. In fact, my fraternity back at school did one every spring to raise money for the Hole in the Wall Gang.

Generally speaking, Casino nights shouldn't be done with real gambling - it's way to easy to get cheated and end up loosing money as an organization. Instead, people buy chips or monopoly money at the door, then gamble with that. They can then take their winnings and use them to buy raffle tickets. If you go around to area stores and businesses, you'll find that you can get a pretty significant number of prizes for free, mostly in the form of $20-$50 gift cards (restaurants tend to be the best, i think). Also, the biggest key to making an event like this successful is getting people in the door - It's critical that you do some great advertising and get a lot of people there. a packed house makes it more fun for everyone, brings you more money, and ensures that people will come back next year.

If it's your first year doing this, start simple - maybe some poker tables and blackjack... Games like Roulette or Craps can be difficult to setup or difficult to run/understand the rules, and should only be taken on if you're confident you can pull them off without any disputes.

Trust me, Casino nights can be a great fund raising opportunity, but as in everything else you have to do your due diligence to ensure you won't get in trouble with any of the authorities (police or school).