It’s not exactly a secret that I’ve been involved in organizing several gambling events for charity in the past, and by “several†I mean “threeâ€â€¦ But hey, I bet that’s three more than the overwhelming majority of people have experience with! I was never really the sole organizer for any of these events – hell, I wasn’t even the main organizer for most of them! I was just a guy who helped out with the organization and also acted as a dealer, which is always LOADS of fun (seriously, if you guys have never played dealer for strangers, I recommend that you try it if you have the opportunity). That all changed in April of 2016, when the absolutely lovely Richard and Amelia Grayson – the two wonderful, amazing people behind ADADA – invited me to organize an event for them. In case you haven’t heard of ADADA before, it’s basically a non-profit organization which sets to fund UK online casinos that have a unique vision. I mean, sure, objectively speaking the Graysons’ work isn’t as important as, say, feeding starving children in Africa, but it is one they wholeheartedly believe in and are extremely passionate about – not to mention, they clearly know what they’re doing, judging by the myriad of online casinos they’ve already helped launch. Hell, you might have already stumbled onto at least one!
So, enough of the introduction! What’s the event about? Well, the Graysons decided to go with a blackjack night – several tables, staffed by one of us (and a few volunteers). Players would buy chips that they could use to play against the dealers, and if they won, they could donate their chips, and we’d write that amount as their donation, and if they ended up losing, the original amount they used to buy their chips with would be their donation. Of course, that was easier said than done – I mean, it’s not like Wikihow teaches you how to run a charity event properly, as much as it tries. Even someone as experienced as me pretty much had to wing it and deal with problems one at a time, as they arose. (Un)surprisingly, you can’t just start a gambling den in someone’s basement, even if it’s for charity. You need to apply for a license with the Gambling Commission, and then wait to be researched and approved before you can do anything… If you want to be legal, that is.
Once you clear all the legal hurdles (which wasn’t exactly easy, but I’m not going to bore you with all those details) we had to actually sit down and organize the actual event. Richard and Amelia took care of stuff like decorations, invitations, that kind of thing, leaving me with the design of the night. I took inspiration from many of the sites I found on this online blackjack website, deciding that user accessibility was going to be my priority. As a result, had to take some very special care when it came to designing the actual experience that each of our charitable gamblers was going to go through when they entered our small, made-up casino. My decision was that they would be greeted by the blackjack tables (arranged in a semi-circle) pretty much as soon as they entered the hall with their chips, almost like an invitation. You know how in online casinos you always see the games immediately after you log in? I wanted to recreate that experience subtly, without shoving anything in people’s faces.
Suffice to say, the event actually turned out to be quite successful. I’m afraid I can’t disclose just how much money we managed to raise, but the Graysons and I are now considering turning our blackjack night for charity into an annual tradition. And honestly, I wouldn’t mind! Who knows if it’ll happen, but if it does, I’m going to be absolutely into it, 100%! I’ll let you know next year!