Casino Theme Party

Did you know that casino is an Italian word that means small villa or little house?

It wasn’t until the 19th century when the word casino referred to public buildings for sports and gambling activities. The first gaming casinos were along the Mediterranean Coast. In 1931, Nevada was the first state to offer legal casino gaming.

For your casino themed party, present your guests to be with invitations that look like they came straight from Vegas. Get the largest deck of cards you can find. If you can’t find a large deck, then make a cards out of scrap booking cardstock. Place your party information on one side of the card and on the other side draw an Ace of hearts or whatever suit suits you.

Your casino themed party is all about the games. Clear out your furniture from your chosen room for the main gaming area. Set up tables for poker, blackjack, craps and have a long table for the races (see next paragraph for racing set up). If you are able, then set up a couple lap tops with slot machine games or any other casino type games along the perimeter of the room.

The horse racing game is quite simple. Have a long table covered with either green felt or a green plastic table cloth. Use a black marker or tape that is not transparent (like black electrical) to mark an oval horse racing track around the table. Divide the track into several spaces as would appear on a game board. The racers place a plastic toy horse on the starting square. Once the announcer calls “and there off” the racers each roll a die and move the amount shown. There is no taking of turns to roll the die. Every player rolls the die and moves as fast as they can. The goal is to roll and race until at the finish line.

Have a lotto draw every hour. Invite your guests to "buy" lotto tickets. Set a small price for each ticket. Take a lotto sheet from your local convenience store and make enough copies to use for your guests during your party. Use ping pong balls and write numbers 1-49 (or less for better odds) on them and use those to draw the winning numbers. The winner of each round gets the loot from that draws purchases.

Depending on your floor plan you can have an adjacent room set up as a sports lounge. Have your TV showing the current game surrounded by comfy seats. If you have a pool table or foosball table or air hockey table, then you can incorporate that into your party as a “Live from Vegas” style tournament. Have your refreshments served from this lounge.

Rent or even purchase some glitzy lit signs for that gaming ambiance. You can try a variety of stores depending on the area you live in. Try novelty stores, sporty hobby shops, party stores or your local DJ renting company. Have your tables covered with green felt or green table cloths and mark them to resemble the desired gaming table.

Make sure you have enough decks of cards, dice, chips, and prizes for the winners. Game prizes can include inexpensive gift certificates to popular coffee houses or tickets to an upcoming community event or any other door prize that is suited to your guests interests.

If you want to jazz up your party with a specific casino style such as Monte Carlo or Vegas theme, then include that on your invitations so guests can dress appropriately. A Monte Carlo style can be a formal black tie affair. Have French music in the background. For a Vegas style casino night you can encourage guests to dress like a famous Vegas entertainer. Elvis, Siegfried & Roy, Donny and Marie Osmond, Barry Manilow, Wayne Newton, Bette Midler, Cher, Tony Curtis, Liberace and Frank Sinatra are to name a few. Have those performers’ music playing in the background.
Your casino themed party will be a guaranteed hit!