Although the new year just started, the roaring twenties came to full effect at the Lobo Village.
The student housing apartments hosted a roaring twenties themed casino night for all students to experience a fun eventful night and an opportunity to see what Lobo village has to offer.
On Thursday, Feb 20, The AMERICAN CAMPUS COMMUNITY (ACC) provided a night for students to participate in many different pseudo-gambling activities and other events.
With venues set up both inside and outside the Lobo Village clubhouse, students could participate in games such as blackjack, poker, and craps. Other activities were available for students who did not wish to participate in the casino aspect — photo booth, raffle, and a henna artist. There was also a courtesy limo shuttling students from the main campus.
All prizes, venue, staff, and transportation were provided by ACC. With the event hosting around 800 to 1000 students, 500 to 700 are non-Lobo Village residents. With most of the students coming from on-campus housing, Shellier Rhacon Rivera, the head of the leasing and marketing manager of the Lobo Village and Casa Del Rio, said they wanted to showcase an off-campus experience while still being connected with the university.
Some of the prizes included a 65-inch smart tv, AirPods pro, concert ticket, and Yeti cooler. Each student was given seven raffle tickets at the beginning of the night
Rhacon Riveria said they hosted this night of activities to attract mainly sophomores, juniors, and seniors to experience Lobo Village.
“We wanted to do something more like carnival games something more outside the box… and bring a casino experience to the students and make it friendly and fun,” Riviera said. She added that the intention of the casino night was not to promote gambling activities but to create a fun environment and nonconsequential night.
Throughout the night many students had heavy opinions on the performance of the event. Students claimed that the night was eventful and fun.
Gilbert Holmes an off-campus student said, “it’s a lot of fun… they go all out, the set up and people dressing up makes it go the extra mile.” Other students echoed Holmes’ opinion by saying the theme was different and exciting.
Even though students gave good compliments on the event, there were other students that expressed different opinions.
“The outside venue had no access to the raffle, that was kind of a big advertisement for tonight’s event,” William Reynolds, a Lobo Village resident, said.
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Many students had trouble hearing the announcement of raffle winners which eliminated their chances to win. Some students expressed that the games should have a prize for winning instead of no consequence system.
Noah Parra is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @NoahParra6
