Cleaning lady grabs $10K at Las Vegas Night

Florevick Carino, a commercial cleaner at IT&E for the last 17 years, grabbed the top prize in Rotary Club’s Las Vegas Night on Saturday night. She opted for $10,000 in cash over a brand new 2015 Hyundai Accent GLS.

What would she do with all that money? She would save it, she said, and send some to her two children in the Philippines.

Blackjack, roulette, Bingo, and Texas Hold’Em hold the attention of players and dealers at the Rotary Club’s Las Vegas Night at Fiesta Resort last Saturday. Inset, Florevick Carino couldn’t contain her joy upon hearing her name drawn for the top prize in the Rotary Club’s Las Vegas Night last Saturday. (DENNIS B. CHAN)

Carino’s lucky number was ticket number 8501.

Joyce Sy took home $3,000 for the second top prize. A “no-name” ticket number 0932 was called for the $2,000 prize; a woman named Angie took home $1,000, and Cathy Camoral won $500.

Carino’s cry of surprise broke up the crowd gathered at the drawing site where emcee and Rotary vice president Curtis Dancoe announced the night’s winners. She appeared shaken but joyful while claiming her prize, and held on to the emcee podium as the crowd cheered.

“So is it the $10,000 in cash or the 2015 Hyundai Accent GLS?” Dancoe asked. Carino would take the cash. She said she bought her $40 worth of tickets from her landlady and a friend at Dolphin’s Wholesale.

Tickets were sold out at the door around 8:30pm that night. Rotary president Richard Cody said at least 10,000 tickets were sold. Proceeds would help fund many of their community projects.

“Our number one project is a construction of a family park in Kagman. A second project we would like to do is furnish and equip a dental clinic on Rota,” Cody said.

Las Vegas Night is the one major fundraising event of the club’s entire year, according to Cody. The club also sends about $1,000 a year to a children’s hospital in Russia, he said.

A full account of how many tickets were sold and money raised from the night’s games was not available that night. Last year, they raised about $40,000, Cody said. He expects to top that number this year.

Cody estimated the cost of the Kagman Park to reach some $100,000. They have set aside $5,000 a year for the project in previous years, he said. About $20,000 should have been raised by that night, he said.

He hopes construction is started before the end of this Rotary year in June next year.

“The first part of the project that we want to do is the basketball court. They have a half-court; we want to make it a full-court. The kids use the basketball court everyday.”

Cody added that he is very grateful for the volunteers and Rotary members who threw in their support to make the event happen. He said the night’s turnout was “better than we thought it would be.”

Thousands gathered that night to play blackjack, roulette, Bingo, and Texas Hold’ Em. A significant number chose not to play but waited in the wings for the night’s raffle drawings.