Students hoping for a night in Sin City need look no further than Spartan Stadium as the School of Hospitality Business kicks off its annual Vegas Night at 5 p.m. Friday.
“It’s like I get to have my own casino for the night,” said Tyler Orr, a hospitality business senior and the executive director for Vegas Night.
As the premier event for the school, this year’s Vegas Night will move from its usual location at Breslin Center to Spartan Stadium where they hope the additional space will open up possibilities to make the event bigger and better than it has been before.
“Last year at the Breslin, it was a little too small,” said Orr. “We were just looking for a bigger and better location.”
A part of Vegas Night for four years, Orr started as the poker tournament director and now oversees the other 13 board members and more than 120 volunteers for the event.
“I’ve watched it grow over the years,” Orr said. “I have a strong passion for the casino business, and it’s the closest thing I can get to a running a casino without actually working at one.”
Orr also said there will be new additions to the event other than the location.
“We’re going to have a jazz band, and the Impulse Dance team will be our showgirls for the night,” Orr said. “It’s going to be more elegant than in the past years.”
Communication senior Allen Kuschell, who plans to attend the event with several friends, said he is looking forward to a night of fun and entertainment at the new location.
“I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what they do with the whole casino theme,” Kuschell said. “Last year’s was great, but the location wasn’t. It’ll be amazing to have it at Spartan Stadium.”
Hospitality business senior Chris Cheng expects 700 to 800 students to attend the
event because of the new location.
“We chose Spartan Stadium because we felt we could make it look most realistically like a casino,” said Cheng, also the Vegas Night director of donations. “I probably now have 100 friends coming to the event.”
Vegas Night has more than games this year. Cheng said three professional poker players will attend the event and compete in the 100-person No Limit Texas Hold’em tournament.
The three players are Dean Hamrick, 10th place finisher in the 2008 World Series
Poker Tournament, Dustin Scott, 2006 World Series poker bracelet winner, and Jamin Stokes, third-place winner in the $10,000 World Series Heads Up Poker Tournament.
“The pros will have the advantage of extra experience,” said Cassi Weisman, hospitality business junior and director of poker.
“You can have all the experience in the world, but if you have no luck, it won’t matter.”
Working on the event since April 2009, board members are making sure everyone is prepared for the night by making mandatory training sessions for everyone planning to work the event as a dealer.
“We require all our dealers to come to two of our six training sessions, so they become familiar with the games,” Orr said. “This year, we’re actually adding a new game, Let It Ride.”
Kuschell expects that this year’s Vegas Night will be better than those before and looks forward to the night ahead.
“I’m definitely attending,” Kuschell said. “The directors know how to put on a
great event and please the crowd.”
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For more information on Vegas Night, visit their Web site at msuvegasnight.com.
