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Gambling After Dark 3.0 to be better than last year

Shane Foley

Connector Editor

“I can see that our numbers have grown,” said John Romano, executive board member for the annual Gambling After Dark event. “Everything about it has grown. It’s going to be better this year than it was last year, because we’re gonna have the room set up very nice, we’re gonna have a bunch of different things there, we’re gonna have a new game as well, and we’re definitely working on the casino style feel which people like, because they don’t get that from other events on campus.”

Romano, with the help of a very large E-board, will help run the third installment of Gambling After Dark, an event that has grown to earn inclusion amongst the most popular events on campus per year. The basic premise of the event is turning Moloney Hall into a casino, with poker, roulette, and other games you would normally find at a professional casino. The twist is that it doubles as a sexual education program.

On that night, many informational booths will fill Moloney Hall. They will be providing information on sexual health, so not only can you get a couple hands of poker in, but you can learn about the latest statistics and how to stay sexually healthy.

Last year, Gambling After Dark was a huge success, attracting a huge crowd. This came as a huge surprise to its workers, since it started out as a very small program, put together by several resident advisors in 2013.

“It started off as the DifferenceMaker pitch at reslife training, and it exponentially took off, because people love it. It’s a great event, it’s fun, and it’s something the student population didn’t know it was going to be as liked as it was. People look forward to it, people asked me questions about it at the start of this year; it had interest right away,” said Romano.

Some of the booths that will be at the event will be run by cosponsoring organizations. LASA will be providing a booth speaking about Relief Day, another program soon to come. Healthy Hawks will also be there with other resources on sexual health education. In addition to these on campus supporting organizations will be the It’s On Us campaign, a national initiative to stop sexual violence.

Due to the presence of these booths, Gambling After Dark may be the opportunity to ask that question you have been dying to have answered but too embarrassed or shy to ask it in public. “It’s a space where people are having fun, but not necessarily looking at what you’re doing, so you can go up to Healthy Hawks and ask them a serious question and not feel like you’re going to be ostracized, because people are busy looking at other things,” said Romano.

To top off all of the entertainment and education, there are prizes as well. These prizes come in the form of various sex toys, to fit the theme of the event. They will be providing other unrelated prizes as well, such as a VISA gift card and two pairs of headphones.

“Some people don’t feel comfortable, so we wanted to reach out to everyone that could come out to the event and make sure there is a prize that everyone would want to get,” said Romano.

Gambling After Dark has become a program so popular that not only do people enjoy attending, people enjoy working the event. Romano, who has worked the event since it was originally pitched in 2013, has seen a heavy spike in volunteers and hands on deck in general.

“RA’s want to come and volunteer,” said Romano. “We don’t need to make it an in service; we don’t need to make it required for RA’s to come because we have enough help off the bat. That’s great because that means people want to come, tell their residents about it, people tell their organizations, whether they’re sponsoring with us or not, people like to send people here because it’s a fun event.”

The event will be held in Moloney Hall on November 30th, 2015. Set your calendars.

“To people who’ve been to a casino, it feels like being in a casino,” said Romano. “It’s a nice atmosphere; it’s really electric.”

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