Families crowded into the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Friday night to try their luck at University Board’s Psychedelic Casino.

“We were very prepared for this many people, we just didn’t expect this many people,” said Theresa Outman, University Board’s special events coordinator.

Outman estimated about 500 people attended the event.

“We decided it would be a fun thing to do,” Jenny Giambarberee, a junior early education major, said.

“We could win some money, or a T-shirt,” her father, Paul Giambarberee, said.

People played games like blackjack, poker, roulette and craps to win chips.

“When people win chips, they turn the chips in and receive tickets, “said University Board member Amy Durbin. “They stick the tickets in the cups that are in front of the prizes. At the end, we do a raffle for each prize.”

Prizes for the raffle included a DVD player, tickets for Saturday’s Creedence Clearwater Revisited concert, a CD player and Eastern apparel and accessories. T-shirts were given out as door prizes throughout the night.

The oxygen bar provided alternative entertainment to the casino games. Participants sat at the bar and breathed scented oxygen through their noses while wearing sunglasses that blinked lights and headphones that played calming sounds.

“It was crazy,” said Mark Heywood, a freshman business major.

The oxygen bar was a very different and relaxing experience, Heywood said.

A table featuring children’s board games, such as Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, was set up for the entertainment of children too young to play the casino games.

The Grand Ballroom, filled with psychedelic lights and music, was intended to bring parents back to when they were young, Outman said. Music videos from the 1960s and 1970s played on large screens behind the casino games. Clips of the Beatles and a young Jay Leno were among the scenes repeated on the screens throughout the night.

“It was really crowded, so we didn’t really play anything except for the kid games,” said Jen Hawes, a freshman elementary education major.

Outman, although happy with the outcome of the event, said, “we could have used more tables.”

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