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“This is something I always wanted to do. It’s a new growth opportunity for the region and for me.”

By Andrew M. Seder aseder@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
Andrew M. Seder on Facebook   |   @TLAndrewSeder on Twitter

PLAINS TWP. – When a dealer leaves a casino table and a replacement comes in, it’s customary to hear the words “new dealer.”

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Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs table games instructor Ed Tanguay, right, coaches trainees at a craps table on Monday. About 350 people will be trained there over several months to be dealers and croupiers for table games.

Don Carey / The Times Leader

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Table Training Times

The state has mandated a minimum number of training hours for various table games dealers. Here are several:

• Poker and Pai Gow Poker: 80 hours over a four-week period

• Roulette: 80 hours over a four-week period

• Baccarat and Mini Baccarat: 80 hours over a four-week period

• Blackjack: 120 hours over a six-week period

• Craps: 160 hours over a six-week period

• Pai Gow Tiles: 160 hours over a six-week period

On Monday, every time one of 275 new hires walked into the dealer training trailers at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, someone could have uttered that same phrase.

None of the state’s nine casinos has been authorized to offer table games, but Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, anticipating such approval, became the first to begin training potential dealers and croupiers.

Terry Eckert, 48, of Dallas, has spent the past 24 years in the real estate field but a down market played a role in her decision to write a new chapter in her life.

“I’m just looking for more excitement,” she said. “It seemed like a good opportunity.”

She said once she heard table games were close to being approved by the state Legislature last year, she immediately brought a copy of her resume to the human resources office at Mohegan Sun. Over time, she said she probably brought in two more copies and filled out an application online.

Her persistence paid off, and on Monday she was at a blackjack training table learning more about one of her favorite casino games.

The trainees spent three hours and 30 minutes Monday learning the art of the games and what will be expected of them over the next two to three months and were given their training manuals. An additional 75 people who will be trained specifically at dealing poker will begin their course in a few weeks.

The training sessions will be repeated daily until the requisite number of state-mandated training hours has been reached for each trainee.

Among those standing around the green-felt covered tables Monday were more than 100 current Mohegan Sun employees and the rest were new hires. Some new hires had left their jobs as salesmen or retail managers, and others were from the ranks of the unemployed. They were chosen from an applicant pool of more than 2,000, whittled down to less than half of that during the resume-review process and then down even more during face-to-face interviews and testing.

Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs President and Chief Executive Officer Bobby Soper said he expects some of the 350 trainees won’t make it through the training regimen.

“We’ll likely lose some to attrition,” said Soper, adding that for those who do make it, a job will be there.

Jim Karlowicz, 36, of Lehman Township, hopes he is in the first graduating class.

The former part-time police officer in several Back Mountain municipalities left law enforcement for a job in retail a few years ago. He worked for Sears, then left to take a job in management for Ollie’s in Hazle Township.

As it does for many gamblers, the allure of table games beckoned him. But in Karlowicz’s case, it was for a spot on the other side of the table.

“This is something I always wanted to do,” he said. “It’s a new growth opportunity for the region and for me.”

For some current Mohegan Sun employees, it’s seen as the next step in their continued climb up the ladder.

Mike Bonavoglia, 26, of Dunmore, started working at the casino in December 2006.

“I started at the bottom in the accounting room,” he said. Then he took advancement opportunities when they arose. He worked security, then as a valet and now works as a transportation supervisor.

He sees the gaming floor as another chance to learn the ins and outs of the industry. So too, apparently, do many of his coworkers, including about 40 percent of the transportation department, who applied for dealer slots.

Stephanie Altier, 25, of Greenfield Township, is a server at the Pearl Restaurant and Sushi Bar. She hadn’t played craps before, but she said a career as a croupier seemed “exciting and challenging.”

“I’m excited for the change,” she said.

Though she wants to work the craps table, she will also be trained in at least one other table game. All trainees, except those in the poker class, will learn multiple games including roulette, and what the industry considers “novelty games” such as Spanish 21, Let It Ride and Three-Card Poker.

The games the trainees were assigned to on Monday were by design, said Jeff Walker, Mohegan Sun’s vice president of table games.

Walker, 49, of Stonington, Conn., said factors including the results of a math test given to all potential hires and personality tests helped determine to which games the trainees would be assigned. He said the better the math skills the more likely the trainee would be tasked with learning craps, which has the most payout possibilities and is the game with the greatest need for an outgoing croupier.

Walker said from what he saw he’s impressed with the talent level from the onset.

“Their attitudes were fantastic. Their dexterity and skill levels are exceeding my expectations,” Walker said, in between impromptu lessons on cutting chips, the art of separating chips in set numbers with ease.

That’s an art few mastered on day one, but by the time they’re finished with their training they’ll likely be able to do it in their sleep. The first 20 minutes of every class will be spent cutting chips and mastering how to properly handle them.

By the time the state green lights table games at Mohegan Sun, the dealers will have to meet certain state requirements, including a set number of training hours, training in CPR, training in recognizing problem and compulsive gamblers at table games and procedures for informing supervisory personnel, and training in procedures for the acceptance of tips and gratuities from patrons.

A public hearing regarding table games has been held and Soper, 38, of Shavertown, said with state approval they could be up and running by late May. Realistically, based on comments made by state gaming officials, the state’s approval time frame would peg any opening in June or July.

Andrew M. Seder, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 570-829-7269.