Fun Casino Night

decbuck

Hi,
I was thinking of organising a fund raiser for my local GAA club and was thinking of a fun casino night.

Does anyone know of any companies that do this. I saw one on the internet.

Also what way does it work with money etc??? Can people actually make and loose money or is it all for fun?

Do charge people a cover charge at the door and then let them buy chips inside?

How much can you expect to make from one of these, if say about 350-400 people went?

Cheers

okidoki987

There are a lot of companies that do the "casino nights" nowadays.
Have a look in the Golden Pages.
They can be expensive depending on what level you want.
I get in brochures in work for these guys and I'll quote you the prices.

"For 15 Euro per person plus 300 Euro (all subject to VAT at 21%)
you will get Blackjack tables, Roulette Table and P.A. Sound System.
MC providing Interactive Games, background music, croupiers and DJ. balloon bouquets and Promotional posters."
All of them charge VAT so you can add another 21% onto the prices.
The more you spend the more you get.

You should reckon on about 20 people at a roulette wheel and 8-10 on a blackjack table. So with your numbers of say 400 it would get very expensive to host this.

It is very hard to make money for a "Charity night" using this method
(A) Charge at the door
(B) As people are playing for "Fun Money", hard to see how to get income from this.
(C) You would have to apply for a gambling licence to operate the casino for real money and the club could lose money!

A much better idea (me thinks) would be a "Race Night"
The number of people doesn't matter to the price.
2,000 Euro (plus VAT) will get you the basic
6/8 races, tote tickets, video projector, PA, Sound system, event manager, MC, Tote girl, race signage, balloons, race cards, fun money.
The more you pay the more girls you get!

So for 400 people the race night will cost you
approx 6 Euro a head. the Casino will cost you minimum of 15 Euro a head.
The Race night will make you more money as you can
(A) Charge at the door
(B) Take a margin on the tote payout (normally it's between 20 and 50% of the pool.
(C) Get people to sponsor the race card and also people to "Buy" a horse in each race. Say charge them 5 or 10 Euro a horse. They name their horse and you do up a racecard with their horses name and the "owners name".
Winner of the race gets 50% of the total raised
(D) The last race is normally the "Auction Race".
You get somebody to auction the horses and the "owners" pay cash there and then! This avoids the problem of chasing people for the money later on.
People normally get together in groups and pool their money to buy a horse.
Again winner takes 50-70% of the pool. if people have enough drink on them, these horses can go for huge amounts.
TIP: If you are buying a horse, always buy the early horses (aside from whether it wins or not) as the late horses are always sought after as people scramble to have a runner in the race.
You will raise much more doing the Race Night rather then the Casino.
If you want you could organise the race night yourself!
This avoids having to pay somebody else.
You ring a company (who's name I've forgotten but if you want it, I will find it) that supplies the races, a projector and a bloke to operate the machine for the night. The last time I did this it was 280 Irish for the night but that was about 3 years ago. They also supply the tote tickets.
You supply:
the "Tote Girls/boys" to sell the tickets and take the cash
Your own race cards (printer or photocopier)
Posters
MC (anybody who can run an auction)
and it will be very cheap.

Good luck with it.

decbuck

We already do a race night and we were looking of new more exciting ways to fund raise.

Any other suggestions?

okidoki987

A lot of clubs etc organise the fund raisers at Shelbourne Park or Harolds Cross Greyhound Stadium?

homerhop

Dont want to burst your bubble but I was at a casino night with my company. It was the first time we ever went to one , and everyone I have spoken to about it had the same comment....was completely boring and would never go to one again. Now we were a mixed age group so it was not that.