BELLE FOURCHE—There was little bit of sin city here in our own Belle Fourche when the Community Hall was transformed into an entertainment mecca during Casino Night on the evening of March 22.
For the first time ever, The Chamber of Commerce brought a new concept to the town as a fun way to showcase the businesses in the area. “This is an event to promote our members! Our booths are our members. We’re promoting them in the prize packages, and then everything you see here comes from our members—Hometown Thursdays has the cocktail tables, the little vignettes that are set up for conversation that is Black Hills Deals and Steals—those are for purchase. A lot of our dealers are members—Colton over here is with Belle Chiropractic and he’s pitching in, 605 Media is the DJ and photo booth, and then all the curtains and stuff that you see, they are members with Something Borrowed,” explained Michaela Horn, Chamber of Commerce Director. “And so it’s just a way to showcase what our membership has to offer. It shows that the Belle Fourche Chamber can connect you with the resources!”
It was an eventful evening with many different types of games of chance. From Plinko and Roulette to Texas Hold ‘em and Black Jack, there was something for everyone to play. Perhaps dice games or slot machines are more your thing? Well that was available too! The Spirit of Cheer and Dance, Inc. supplied a human slot machine.
“This is the trial year, so we’re seeing how it works, and if the community is receptive, then we’ll look at doing it again next year,” explained Horn. But if early turnout was an indicator, then Casino Night will be back! “Oh, my goodness, the first couple hours have been amazing,” exclaimed Horn.
Every hour new fancy trays of hors d’oeuvres were brought around for everyone to nibble on and a cash bar with specialty drinks was available. There was also wine and whisky tastings to start the evening.
If that wasn’t enough excitement for you, there were also performers keeping the crowd entertained, Ken Branich did an amazing Cyr Wheel performance and Amber Sky Aerial Arts did a stunning routine over the top of everyones head, while a tall lady on stilts roamed the crowd. Designs by Duende Ink provided a tattoo booth for those wanting to brave a new look.
Tickets were sold for $50.00 each. “You come in the door and get 10 poker chips to start your gaming. You get the heavy hors d’oeuvres that are served, one per hour, you can enjoy the performers and we will have games until 10:00 p.m. We will draw our prizes at 11:00 p.m.—we have four large prize packages—then we have our DJ and the bar stays open until midnight,” said Horn.
After you played the evening away and won a bunch of poker chips, you could then exchange the chips for tickets to enter to win a nice prize package. “They can take their chips to the bank, the bank gives them a drawing certificate, you write your name and your phone number, you enter it into the prize package that you’re interested in, and then we do the drawing at 11:00 p.m.,” explained Horn. “The majority of our prizes come from our members, because we want to support our members, so that’s important. We have a wellness package, a women’s package, a men’s package, and then a family package.”
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