Bet high on a casino career
If you're willing to gamble on your future, Pikes Peak Community College is ready to deal.
The college is beginning a casino dealer program in partnership with Bronco Billy's Casino and the Triple Crown Casinos in Cripple Creek to train prospective dealers in craps, roulette and blackjack.
"In a bad economic time, it's one of the few industries that I know of that's actually growing in our backyard," said Lou Gutierrez, director of table games for Bronco Billy's.
"These jobs are $40,000-plus a year. You can make a career."
The college is holding an open house for the new program from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Centennial Campus, 5675 S. Academy Blvd. Classes begin March 16 and run through June.
Cripple Creek casinos plan to hire more than 300 people in the coming months as they ramp up for new gaming rules permitted by Amendment 50, which take effect July 2. The amendment allows the state's casinos to add craps and roulette, lets them remain open 24 hours a day and raises betting limits to $100.
Gutierrez said Bronco Billy's plans to hire roughly 50 new dealers on top of the 15 it already employs.
The Triple Crown Casinos plan to add about 80 employees, said Gary Findlay, table games manager.
"We feel pretty confident that just about everyone we teach in the school will get a job up here," Findlay said.
Classes in dealing craps, the most complicated of the new games, will last for nine weeks. Roulette classes will last six weeks and blackjack classes three weeks. The costs are $500 for blackjack, $650 for roulette and $900 for craps, with a $200 discount for taking multiple classes.
"The way it works in the business is that everyone should know blackjack," Findlay said.
"We're going to encourage people to learn more than one game. That makes them more valuable to the casino."
The roulette and craps tables are due to arrive at the college this afternoon. The Vegas atmosphere is something new for Pikes Peak, but the school wants to provide training for real-world jobs, said Jerry Fritz, dean of the college's economic and work force development division.
"It's a bona fide job," Fritz said. "The real important thing to us is we don't want to have people come here and do the training and not have the opportunity to get a job."
Although Bronco Billy's and the Triple Crown got the ball rolling, graduates of the classes should have a shot at jobs anywhere, Gutierrez said. The college will have a hiring fair in May.
Kevin Werner, general manager of the Wildwood Casino, is already training his staff on the new games, but still needs to hire a dozen or so more dealers. He thinks there will be a demand for trained dealers.
"I think the market's going to grow and once table games get going, the casinos that don't have table games will be adding them," Werner said.
David Minter, general manager of Johnny Nolon's Casino, isn't planning on adding table games until he sees what the response is. However, he said, a dealer school makes sense.
"I think any time you can put some formal education behind something, it's a good idea," Minter said.
-
Call Wineke at 636-0275
CASINO DEALER PROGRAM
Pikes Peak Community College is holding an open house for its new casino dealer program.
When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: Room C102 at the Centennial Campus, 5675 S. Academy Blvd.
