Resorts Resumes
Free Poker Lessons With table-games business on the upswing in Atlantic City, Resorts is reviving free gaming lessons in craps, blackjack, roulette, Let It Ride, Three-Card Poker and Caribbean Stud. The 45-minute lessons are offered at 9 p.m. Fridays, 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. They are held in Resorts' hotel lobby. Participants are promised a "graduation gift."
In this American Indian gaming capital of California, casino and campus have entered into a marriage of mutual financial benefit. Two local institutions of higher learning are planning programs to prepare students for jobs in one of the few growth industries in the state: Indian casinos.
Grossmont College in El Cajon hopes next month to get approval to award a certificate of achievement for students finishing courses in the program Tribal Gaming: Culture and Policies. Officials at the two-year college hope the program will evolve into an associate of arts program, with units transferable to four-year colleges.
In addition, San Diego State University has announced plans for courses leading to a certificate in casino gaming from its College of Extended Studies.
Among the courses: Gaming Security and Surveillance, Table Games, Slot Analysis, Revenue Techniques, and Deterring and Detecting Casino Cheats.
For the gaming industry, the San Diego State certificate should mean an expanded pool of job applicants and something possibly even more significant.
"You have to admit that this legitimizes the industry in this community," said Steve Penhall of Sycuan Casino & Resort.
For Penhall, the gaming industry has been a profit without honor in San Diego County, which has nine Indian casinos and six more in the planning stages.
According to an analysis by the county government, the casinos attract more than 40,000 gamblers a day, have a cumulative payroll exceeding $270 million a year, spend $263 million a year on goods and services, and employ more than 12,000 people.
Although other sectors of the local economy are sagging, casino gaming is booming, officials say. "There are more jobs in casino gaming than people to fill them," Penhall said.
William Byxbee, dean of San Diego State's College of Extended Studies, said the gaming program was geared toward practicality.
For example, he said, the slot machine class would explore the complexities of how to make a slot attractive to the public. "It's a whole mathematical construction, determining how much money has to be paid to make people want to play," he said.
Tentatively, the San Diego program will involve five classes, at $240 per class. Internships at the casinos are a possibility.
California tribal government employment grew 17.8 percent in the fiscal year that ended in July, more than that of any other private or public sector of the economy, according to the California Employment Development Department. Most of the growth was recorded in the casinos, resorts, and hotels run by the tribes.
As gaming spreads across the country, several colleges are offering related programs. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, offers a minor in gaming management. Colleges that have recently begun casino gaming classes include Tulane University, Michigan State University, and the University of Massachusetts.
