The Resident Student Association is once again making Parent’s Weekend more entertaining by bringing Casino Night back to the University.

This is the eighth year that RSA has held the event for University students and their families. The event is free to everyone that attends, and will be held Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in the Union’s Multi-Purpose Room.

Casino Night is a tradition at the University, sponsored by RSA, that is held twice a year–once in the fall for Parent’s Weekend and in the spring during midterms, said Jamie Borowski, president of RSA.

“The Casino Night for Kids and Sibs was changed to a carnival for the children, and now Casino Night is held sometime during midterms,” Borowski said.

The event is held in the springtime at the end of midterms to give students a break after taking exams and doing projects.

In order to ensure a fun, free time, a budget is put together every year by RSA for this event to supply the University with entertainment, prizes and refreshments.

RSA paid for a company established in Ohio to come to the University and be the “dealers” for the event. The company is a full service special events company that provides quality entertainment equipment for private and corporate events. RSA has been dealing with the company since Casino Night was first established at the University.

AJ Sunny Entertainment will be supplying the University with Black Jack, Roulette and Poker tables among other entertainment items, Borowski said.

“When you walk in the door, you will receive a cup full of chips so you can play the games,” said Rebecca Carbone, vice president of leadership development for RSA.

At the end of the night the players turn in all their chips and receive raffle tickets. The more games won, the more chips are received, which in turn results in more raffle tickets.

“Everyone wins,” Carbone said. “Everyone gets at least one raffle ticket,”

At the end of the evening, prizes are given out to the people with raffle tickets. The prizes were bought by RSA and donated by local businesses.

“One big prize that we have is a DVD player from Meijer’s,” Borowski said.

Other prizes come from a $2,000 budget and donations. Because of the prizes that are given out and all the free fun provided, the turnout for this event has been good in the past, but not the best.

It hasn’t been the best because of conflicting times with other events going on at the same time. With a change in time planning, the turnout for this year’s event is expected to be a little bit better than the last, though.

“The turn out in the past has always been good,” Carbone said. “But it conflicted with the football game. This year we are holding it after the game and trying to incorporate other events that are going on so as not to conflict with them.”

With conflicting events, such as the football game, it was a little tough to get many parents and students to come out. But now since the conflicting events have been limited, RSA has also limited the reasons why students wouldn’t come.

Another way to get more people to come out is by getting most of the other events held for Parent’s Weekend to be located in the same area, the Union, so students and family members would not have to worry about looking for something to do on a different part of campus.

People may come either because they like to gamble, or they like the idea of free refreshments, provided by Pepsi. There will also be free pizza, chips and pretzels.

Whether students have family members come up this weekend, or they don’t have anything else to do Saturday night, Casino Night will be open and free in the Union for all to enjoy an evening of gambling, prize winning and refreshments.