Response 6

Casino Night at UCrossing

During my Freshman Orientation, our group's orientation leader, Bri, told us about a crazy annual event called Gambling After Dark. Essentially, they set up a small casino in one of the suites in University Crossing, but instead of classic poker chips, they use condoms. Our group was very shocked when she said that, and we were just confused as to why this is a thing, and she told us that it's all about promoting safe sex and stuff like that, so it made a lot more sense. When she told us there was a raffle and prizes and everything, I could only imagine what kind of stuff they would give away in the raffle. It was only a few minutes after I walked in that they started the raffle. They had exactly what you'd think a college safe-sex casino would offer up. I won't go into specifics, but you can guess what they had.

I got the email about two and a half weeks before the event actually happened, notifying me that it will take place in University Crossing Suite 260. It was another E1 opportunity, and I had originally considered using this for my E1 since this was before I knew of the showing of Forrest Gump. After I went to that showing and used that for the E1, I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to go to the Casino Night as part of the reason I wanted to go was to use it as an E1. Two days before the event, my friend Brett told me that he was going to go since he was using that as his E1. He asked me if I wanted to go with him, so I said yes and we left USuites at around 5.

We got there quite early. When we got there, whoever was running the casino was still setting things up in the suite, so they told us to wait until about quarter to 6, so we went back to Fox to have dinner first, which in retrospect, we probably should've done anyway because we were both pretty hungry when we got there. After we had dinner, we head back to UCrossing and arrive around 5:45, just like the people running the casino said. Brett and I walk up the stairs to see a small line form up, probably around five or six people in front of us. Someone announces they're almost ready, and when more people arrive, they start handing out little sheets of paper and pencils with a quick survey regarding what we know about safe sex. I was slightly annoyed because I was slightly annoyed and confused as to why they would tell us to come back at 5:45 if they still wouldn't be ready yet, but was thankful that we still got there early because the line was getting pretty long by the time they were ready. Once they were ready, the line started moving, and we had to go to the table in front to sign in (assuming you were using this for an E1) and they would give you a small paper bag with six condoms in it to start, and then once Brett signed in, we walked in.

The setup in the suite was pretty legit. They had a couple tables for Blackjack, Texas Hold'em, Poker, they had a roulette table, a craps table and they even had a digital horse race setup on the other side of the room. Brett walked off to try his luck on the horse races, while I wanted to start things slow and I walked towards a Blackjack table. I recognized the dealer as this girl who I still don't know the name of, but I've seen many times on my way to Calculus. I slowly built up a fair stash of around twelve or thirteen condoms by playing several hands of blackjack, betting one condom each hand. Brett came up to me later and he showed me that he had probably around 40 condoms from betting on the horse races. After I finished that last hand, I walked toward the horse races, and I bet on only 3 or 4 races because I didn't have a lot of condoms to begin with. Brett wasn't kidding because by the time I was done, I had around 35 condoms.

Meanwhile, the entire time, someone else was announcing the raffle prizes. It was funnier hearing it because she would read exactly what it said on the box, and it made Brett and I, probably along with other people in the casino, giggle like 12-year-olds. One of the prizes was a $25 gift card for Amazon. I went up to the raffle table, and it was 3 condoms for 1 ticket, so I put 21 condoms in for 7 tickets. Unfortunately, I didn't win, so I was left with only about 15 condoms left. After that, I decided to try my luck at the roulette table.

I knew how to play the roulette already, so I knew what I was doing. I usually played 3 different 4-number spots, so I had 3 to 1 chance of my bet paying off, and each individual bet would have a 9 to 1 payout, so I thought it would work out great. Most rounds of that bet paid off, and then I started getting risky and playing individual numbers. The numbers I would play each time were 8, 17, and 23. One turn, the ball did land on 23, and my bet payout 36 condoms. I kept playing the roulette, and by the end of the night, I had won 83 condoms (I counted), and I couldn't fit them all into the bag, so I fit a good amount of them into my pockets. Brett and I met up right outside, and he told me that sadly, he didn't do so well at the poker table, and had only about 30 left, but that's still really good, seeing as how we started off with 6. I kept thinking to myself throughout the night that this would be a funny story to tell to my roommate John, and he did think it was funny that I came back with almost a hundred condoms.