Epilepsy Foundation Texas is bringing its first Houston casino night to White Oak Music Hall on Thursday, September 24, with blackjack tables, a poker tournament, and a raffle prize built around a four-bedroom Galveston beach house. Tickets for the event, called Violet Royale, run $200 to $350, and early-bird pricing has been extended through Labor Day.
According to CultureMap Houston, the casino-style fundraiser brings together friends, community members, and supporters for an evening of blackjack, roulette, craps, and other casino games, plus drinks, light bites, a silent auction, and raffle prizes. VIP ticket holders can also compete in a Texas Hold’em poker tournament, with the top prize a week-long stay at Coastal Casa, described as a four-bedroom Galveston getaway near Jamaica Beach. The event kicks off at 6 p.m. at White Oak Music Hall, located at 2915 N Main St. in Houston’s Near Northside.
Chips Convert to Raffle Tickets, Not Cash
Because Texas law provides no nonprofit exemption for casino nights or poker tournaments, the event cannot pay out cash winnings. Per the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, charity casino events must operate strictly as entertainment under Texas Penal Code Chapter 47, meaning any chip balances players accumulate convert into raffle entries rather than money. That structure explains why casino winnings at Violet Royale turn into raffle tickets, with the Galveston house stay and other prizes distributed through that raffle system rather than handed out as gambling payouts.
Event proceeds are earmarked to support medical care, camps, education, support programs, and other resources for individuals and families impacted by epilepsy, per CultureMap. White Oak Music Hall itself, which opened in 2016, spans five acres and includes a 1,000-capacity indoor main hall alongside a 3,000-capacity outdoor lawn, sitting about two miles north of downtown Houston near the MetroRail Red Line.
From a Kitchen Helpline to 176 Counties
Epilepsy Foundation Texas traces its roots to 1983, when Donna Stahlhut founded the Epilepsy Foundation of Southeast Texas after her son’s diagnosis, according to the organization’s own account. Mergers in 2008 and 2011 expanded the nonprofit’s reach to 176 Texas counties, growing it from a single family helpline into a statewide network that now describes its mission as providing care, community, and hope to Texans living with epilepsy…