As part of St. Edward’s annual Homecoming, the Alumni Gym was transformed into a high-end swanky casino. With ambient lighting, blended tunes from Djmotivate and wandering waiters offering hors d’oeuvres, it felt like being teleported off campus.
The evening’s theme was a masquerade. At the entrance, black, gold and silver masquerade masks were available for guests to take and use to don a new identity. As part of the Halloween weekend, many students arrived in their costumes as well.
Sophomore Wes Daniels said he preferred last year’s Casino Night to this year’s.
“It sounds stupid to say it was a year ago, but maybe (for) pure nostalgia reasons,” Daniels said. “I feel like the atmosphere for this year is kind of low-ish. The lights were on, so it kind of takes you out of that thing. But regardless, I feel like it still is fun for people that are good slash like gambling a lot. Which I mean, I do, it’s fun, but I am not good. But I feel like the peak of it is roulette.”
Dealers lined tables around the gym, which consisted of poker, blackjack, craps and roulette. Unlike last year, there was no bar for students of age. A chocolate fountain with strawberries, graham crackers and pretzels was ready for students to snack on. Along the back wall, more snacks were displayed, like sandwiches and small appetizers.
Senior Anna Southern recounted one of her favorite experiences of the night thanks to her blackjack dealer, Susan.
“When we first sat down, she left an impression,” Southern said. “She was a hard dealer, but she was really just teaching us. We sat there for an hour, and she taught us so much about blackjack and it was kind of like tough love. But then you got to a point where you knew her humor and so you just joked with her. I think she was just super funny, super sweet. There were (also) times where she would kind of cheat just because she felt bad.”
Among the various gambling activities, the blackjack tables were the most prominent, causing the poker tables to be overrun with players waiting to get in on the stakes.
“I think I counted earlier, there’s like 22 or something like that, blackjack tables, which isn’t bad,” Daniels said. “Blackjack is popular, fun, easy to teach to people, so I understand why, but I feel like there could have been more variety maybe.”
Last year’s Casino Night featured a tarot card reader, which was a big hit for students. Some hilltoppers, like Southern, Rory Lee De La Garza and Diana Quinones, remarked that they missed this aspect of the evening.
When asked what could be done to make Casino Night more fun, students suggested bringing back food trucks for more eating options and turning the overhead lights in the gym off to help the atmosphere.
“I will say that having the lights on was a brave choice,” Garza said.
After the festivities closed for the night, the Homecoming Topper Cup winners were announced. University President Montserrat Fuentes announced the winners and ushered them to the front of the stage. The winning Topper Cup team was the “Holy Goats,” with second place being “Campilicious” and finally, a tie for third with “Goatbeth” and the “Topper Club.” The Homecoming Royal Court winners were announced as well, with Zelie Alvernhe and Andrew Bandataking the winning sashes and crowns.
To end the night, students cashed in their chips for raffle tickets to submit for various prizes. Some valuable standouts were a Nintendo Switch Lite and JellyCat stuffed animals.
