{"id":73005,"date":"2024-09-23T10:01:43","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T17:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=73005"},"modified":"2024-09-25T14:43:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T21:43:06","slug":"casino-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/casino-night\/","title":{"rendered":"This Family Weekend, play your cards right at Casino Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask most Las Vegas casino managers how much hands-on job training they got in college and they\u2019ll say: None. Nada. Zilch.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unless, that is, they went to NAU\u2019s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM). For aspiring gaming industry leaders, HRM offers an ace up the sleeve: a chance to learn how to deal cards, manage payment systems and organize and host a major public event from top to bottom\u2026for college credit.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Students enrolled in <\/span>Gaming and Casino Management<\/span><\/a>, a unique class offered through HRM, work tirelessly with other HRM students through August and September to prepare for <\/span>Casino Night<\/span><\/a>, a beloved 31-year Family Weekend tradition at NAU. Bringing in an average of 1,000 visitors each year and raising nearly $1 million for scholarships and experiential learning in the last three decades, Casino Night is both an important school fundraiser and the ultimate high-stakes midterm.\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe students are pretty much running the show,\u201d said assistant professor <\/span>James Drake<\/span><\/b>, who teaches the class. \u201cThey\u2019re cashiering, dealing cards, running marketing campaigns, managing food and beverage sales, securing sponsorships, knocking on doors, making phone calls. It\u2019s great for students to have this firsthand learning opportunity, for them to understand how it feels to want your customers to leave happy.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"student<\/a>
“The students are pretty much running the show,” said James Drake, who teaches the Gaming and Casino Management course at NAU.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Drake knows that feeling well. He spent years working at the famous Golden Nugget Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, starting his career in marketing and later moving to gaming analysis and financial analysis.\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

Drake often served people like \u201cthe George Clooney character in \u2018Ocean\u2019s Eleven,\u2019 with his corral of players,\u201d he said\u2014and that makes him the ideal teacher for students who\u2019d like to follow in his footsteps. Every week, Drake\u2019s classroom becomes a practice casino, where he teaches Gaming and Casino Management and other HRM students how to deftly deal cards and chips for poker, roulette and Texas Hold \u2018Em; how to manage raffle ticket and chip sales using tablet apps; and how to balance all the moving parts of a big event. <\/span><\/p>\n

NAU junior <\/span>Sydney Morrow<\/span><\/b> is no card shark, but she\u2019s passionate about event management.\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

A lifetime ago, Morrow was an architecture student at Arizona State University, until a major car accident derailed her school plans. Unsure of her next academic move, she found a job at an Amazon delivery station, eventually working her way up to a role in logistics coordination.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen associates came in for the night shift, I\u2019d give them their roles and measure the flow of their work,\u201d Morrow said. \u201cI was the one who trained new people and addressed any problems that came up. I loved being everywhere at once and operating in the chaos.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The experience inspired Morrow to transfer to NAU and declare a major in hotel and restaurant management. That\u2019s where she fell in love with the logistical puzzle of Casino Night.\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad worked in hospitality, and I lived in Las Vegas for two years, so I thought it was really cool that NAU had an entire class devoted to casinos,\u201d she said. \u201cGetting involved in Casino Night, having an opportunity to help bring an event to life\u2014it was a no-brainer for me.\u201d\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

\"cheerleaders,<\/a>
Casino Night takes place every year during Family Weekend in the du Bois Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year, her second helping with the event, she\u2019s taking the lead on event planning, along with seniors James Malito and Katelin Wiskirchen, who both aspire to careers in hospitality. Tables, linens, refreshments, volunteer training, marketing, security, even moving a pair of enormous decorative dice into the D\u00fcB\u2014it all falls under her purview. She\u2019s even polishing her blackjack skills in the unlikely event of a dealer shortage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Morrow knows she\u2019ll face several challenges before and during the event: Last year, she recalled with a grimace, guests sweated it out in the Pai Gow poker room as students battled problems with the air conditioning. But experience has taught her how not to panic when the chips are down.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that every time I organize an event, I learn something new and become that much more confident,\u201d Morrow said. \u201cThat\u2019s why this event is so cool: It gives all of us so much confidence by the time we\u2019re ready for internships and jobs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Drake said that\u2019s exactly why NAU\u2019s Casino Night tradition endures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a constant four hours of students interacting with the general public, possibly even dealing with some unhappy customers,\u201d Drake said. \u201cTheir performance directly contributes to the overall success of the event. There are real stakes, real consequences. It\u2019s experiential learning at its finest.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Students, employees, families and members of the Flagstaff community are welcome to attend <\/span>Casino Night, happening Friday, Sept. 27<\/span><\/a>, from 7-10 p.m. in the du Bois Center. The event includes a live and silent auction featuring sports memorabilia, in-demand tickets and other prizes; gambling for \u201cfun money;\u201d a raffle; and more. Standard tickets are $25 and high roller tickets are $40, with discounts for NAU students and youth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n


\nJill Kimball | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ask most Las Vegas casino managers how much hands-on job training they got in college and they\u2019ll say: None. Nada. Zilch. Unless, that is, they went to NAU\u2019s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM). For aspiring gaming industry leaders, HRM offers an ace up the sleeve: a chance to learn how to deal cards,…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":73006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}