Venetian Poker Room Hosts Charity Night for SPCA
Friday, June 11th, 2010Earlier this year the Venetian casino room located in Las Vegas, Nevada hosted the Jennifer Harman Charity Poker Tournament. It was a special event that benefitted the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or SPCA, no-euthanize shelter. The overall goal of the event was to bring awareness and donations to the shelter. The game had a $330 buy-in no-limit Hold’em format and it also had $100 rebuys for the initial twenty minute levels and a one-time $100 add-on for 2x stack returns. The big payout was $10,000 at the World Series of Poker main event and a Curtis & Co. watch. The top ten players on the leaderboard were also awarded a combined total prize package of $30,000.
The SPCA is a long-standing facility that is dedicated to the no-kill format and that takes continuing donations to keep the location running. The Venetian saw this as a great opportunity to not only bring in some money to the casino, but to also do something good for a charity organization. That is the new wave of gambling today. Many events are focusing on bringing notoriety to charity events. It is a great way for casinos to gain a new respect and a new client base. In the world of gambling, finding a new client base is one of the keys to survival. Remember that the recession was hard on most casinos worldwide. In particular Las Vegas’ economy suffered because so much of its economy was built solely on gambling. When people lost their jobs in record numbers, they were unable to continue wagering with the same frequency, or at all in some cases, due to the changes in their income. This is the biggest reason why casinos everywhere are looking to hook up with various charities to bring a new name to themselves. Plus players are looking to find casinos with that vision also. It is great to wager, but when you know you are wagering and part of that hard-earned cash is going to a valuable charity that helps the communities involved, players are much more attuned to gambling more. If you are looking for a charity-involved casino, look at some of the biggest casinos. Most likely they have some big promotions coming up this year due to wanting to create a much more involved and responsible gaming community.

