NIU gamblers and dancers can participate in “Casino_Dance Night” Thursday at Grant Towers South.

The Resident Hall Association and the hall councils for Grant Towers North and South are sponsoring this event, said Kevin McLean, a resident assistant for GTS. “It will be held in the A/B cafeteria of Grant South. The cafeteria will be divided into two halves; one half for the casino and one half for the dance,” McLean said.

The casino side is open from 8 p.m. until midnight, and the dance side from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., said Keith Bansemer, RHA treasurer. “We have facilities for about 400 people on the dance side and 300 people on the casino side,” he said.

The RHA and hall councils have lined up a disc jockey from WKDI-FM, 544 College Avenue, and have rented “regulation professional casino equipment for the evening,” McLean said.

“The admission is 50 cents. For this, the student gets two raffle tickets and $5,000 of funny money to gamble with. More raffle tickets can be bought for 10 cents a piece.”

The “funny money” can be won by betting at Craps, Blackjack, the Roulette Wheel, the Big Wheel, Western Poker (Seven Card Stud) and Five Card Draw.

At 12:45, the RHA and hall councils will be raffling off two Fisher compact disc players, one Fisher wireless remote control VCR and one Toshiba AM/FM cassette walkman, all supplied by Appletree Audio-Video, 1022 W Lincoln Hwy. “The drawing will be held on the dance side and the student must be present to win,” McLean said. Along with the raffle prizes, the gamblers can “buy” prizes with the funny money they win, she said.

According to Blair Brommel, store manager for Appletree Audio-Video, the walkman is worth $75, each disc player is worth $250 and the video recorder is worth $350.