Understand there are online casino party companies who advertise locally and some who do it nationally. In my experience the local companies are the best for you because the national companies may not know the laws for you state. Even worse is the national companies will not be doing your event. What they do is call the local companies, get a quote from them and add hundreds of dollars to the bill just for answering your phone call, and the local company is who will be doing your event and they will have given you a quote that is less than the national company. As you look at each company you will see some that have photographs of movie stars and people having fun in a casino on the front page of their website. Forget all that material designed to attract you because it is not important. When you receive price quotes from the casino party companies you may get 3 or 4 that are in the same general range and 1 or 2 that are much higher than the others. Let’s give an example and say you received quotes for $1000, $1100, $1200 and $2000. It doesn’t make any sense that 3 quotes were in the same range and one quote was much higher and that is because the very high quote is from a national company who will not do your event because they are going to call the local company who gave you the lower quote in the first place, then add the extra money to the bill.
Step 5. The casino tables. There is a general rule to follow which is you want approximately 70 percent of you guests to be able to play. You can modify this rule, but I would not go below 50 percent able to play. The casino company should advise you on this. They should also stay in constant contact with you in the week leading up to the event to revise the tables if needed. Let’s assume your event was 300 guests, but in the last week you realize only 200 will show up. A reputable casino company will suggest you reduce the number of tables. A poor casino company will want you to stay with the original suggestion because they will make more money. Simply stated, the BEST casino party company would rather you have the correct number of tables and not too many or too few, and they should not put their profit above your fundraising needs. Now let’s discuss the casino tables that will be used for your event. This is my opinion as a licensed dealer, but the best casino companies have new equipment which does not have folding metal legs and/or use skirting under the table to hide the metal legs. Ask yourself why a real casino doesn’t use metal folding legs on their tables. A craps or roulette table is very heavy with up to 14 people all leaning and shifting their weight on the table. Maybe that’s the reason you shouldn’t have metal folding legs on the table because you do not want to take the chance the table collapses. I will never deal craps or roulette on a table that has metal folding legs. The point I want you remember here is that you should have the casino party company put in writing that they will be the company doing your event and will not subcontract to another company. You should also require the casino company to provide photographs of the actual tables they will use at the event. It is fine if they can show you the tables on their website, but I would ask myself why a casino company does not have photographs of the tables on the website. Do not accept the company having a photo showing the top of the tables with people having fun because that does not show the legs of the table which I consider the most important part.
Step 6. Cost from the Casino company and suggestions. The casino party company should be making suggestions on the proper casino tables and the number of each table to have for your event. They will follow the general rule of 70 percent of your guests being able to play, but they should also be in constant contact with you leading up to the event and be willing to reduce or add tables if needed. Remember the casino company is there to help you but also want to make money. A great casino company will advise you if needed to reduce the number of tables originally suggested based on the number of guests, allowing them to be a great help to you and still make a profit. The Poor casino companies will want you to stay with the original plan because they will make more money. The point here is that if you have too few tables then your guests can’t play meaning they can’t donate money to the event, and if you have too many tables they will not be used and you are spending more money than you should, and you could run the risk of losing money for the charity because of it. The last point I want you to remember is some casino party companies that do fundraising want a percentage of your profits. Never hire a company that wants a percentage of the profits because that is your money. Look at the casino company as you would a caterer or DJ. They are being paid for their service a flat fee and not a penny more.
Step 7. Who is going to handle the money. There is a cardinal rule in casino fundraiser that you never allow the casino company to touch the money. Keep in mind there could be thousands of dollars out there and you want to remove all temptations and possible accusations. A great casino company will advise you how to set up a “bank” and how only your representatives will touch the money. There are certain aspects of the evening where the casino company pit boss will do things to help encourage additional donations by making chip specials to your guests if they donate more money at each table, but this should only be done one table at a time with one of your representatives standing next to them.
I hope the discussion will help guide you to having a successful casino fundraiser. If you ever have a questions you may always email me at or visit my companies e and I will get back to you and answer your questions because I want to ensure you hire the BEST casino party company and make a lot of money for your charity.
Tim owns a casino company called Cards or Dice in New Jersey and has been helping charity organizations from Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York for many years in planning casino fundraising.
