On Oct. 8, Weber State University held its annual Casino Night, where guests played various games like poker, blackjack and craps.

While gambling is illegal in Utah, participants were given $500 in chips to take to the various tables. While the money was fake, the prizes you could win were very real.

Whether players were big winners, cutting losses or just risk-averse, they could cash out for tickets at any time.

There were plenty of prizes to win — from a $100 Amazon gift card to a record player and money to donate to Weber State clubs and organizations.

Weber State Club Baseball won an extra $250 for their budget and the Philosophy Club took home the grand prize of $500.

The event was run as a joint effort between Chloe Sanoe and Party Times Party Planners, a local Ogden event company. In addition to running the annual casino night, they did Light the W earlier in the week and various other events.

The hard work and planning of Casino Night paid off with the large turnout. The night had full tables with roving crowds of people waiting to get in on the next game. Games only got more popular as the night went on and they’re looking to have even more tables for people to play next year.

One big winner for the night was William Clingenpeel; he was one of the many people there without an organization.

With a singular game, he ended with $1700, up from the $500 starting. He was able to cash out 17 tickets for his prize of choice.
Clingenpeel went on to win the raffle for club money. However, when the crowd found out he wasn’t registered with a club or organization, there was a shout for a redraw, and Clingenpeel didn’t win anything.