Casino night comes to Towers

Pitt students had money on their minds last night at the Marketplace in Litchfield Towers…. Pitt students had money on their minds last night at the Marketplace in Litchfield Towers.

Students gambled their “money” away on games like Texas hold ’em, blackjack, and let it ride during the Marketplace’s Casino Night. Prizes such as T-shirts and canvas bags lined the wall next to the blinking slot machines, while decorations of red, white and black covered the cafeteria.

“Casino night is just one of our ways to reach out to the students,” Aimee Kleer, a food ambassador for Sodexho, said as she handed out 10,000 “cash cards” that could be exchanged for fake money to gamble. “Our theme dinners are always a success.”

The students seemed to agree. When the Marketplace opened at 4 p.m., the line already stretched to the glittery streamers at the bottom of the stairs. As students inched closer to the cafeteria, they stood under mounds of balloons and signs plastered on the walls advertising the “Las Vegas Style Buffet,” the many food options and the different games. An Elvis impersonator, in the traditional white suit with shiny bangles and dark sunglasses, strutted along the line with a trademark “Thank you very much,” occasionally pulling out unwary students and staff to dance.

Once inside, students charged the food line, grabbing loaded baked potatoes, casserole, vegetables, fruit and, of course, many different kinds of dessert; they then hunted for places to sit in the packed dining room.

After dinner came the gambling. A section of the cafeteria was turned into a mini casino, with green-covered tables for the card games, a craps table and a roulette wheel.

The “money” that the students collected when they walked in could either be redeemed immediately for small prizes such as a kite or a pencil or played at the many tables and slot machines. The more money the students won, the better prizes they could get, including a golf bag, blanket, roller cooler or chair. Winners at the slot machines were entered into a drawing to win a portable DVD player.

“I think it’s a really good idea, it’s good to have something to do after class,” Matt Thomas, a 20-year-old junior, said while playing intently at the blackjack tables.

“But you still lose your money just like in the real casinos,” joked his friend Luis Jimenez, a 30-year-old graduate student. “But I mean, I didn’t even know anything about this, I don’t think they did a very good job of advertising. I just wandered in here.”

Not everyone lost their money when playing the games.

“I played roulette and lost, I played let it ride and lost, but then I played big six wheel and beat a lady and took all her money,” 16-year-old ShaReese Jones said. “It’s really fun.”