Pa. casinos deal with lack of dealers

MATT ASSAD The Morning Call

ALLENTOWN — Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate might be more than 9 percent, but the jobless rate among blackjack dealers in the state is probably close to zero.

Casinos statewide began offering table games less than two months ago, but they’re already having trouble finding enough dealers. “With everybody starting tables at once, the dealers pool has dried up,” said Jack Kennedy, director of table games at Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem. “We’re doing all we can to add dealers.” Kennedy said Sands has about 200 dealers but is working hard to add 50 more. Some Sands dealers are working six days a week to fill the schedule.

It’s a problem casinos across the state are dealing with. Not only have the state’s nine gambling halls hired more than 3,600 dealers and supervisors to man nearly 650 new tables, but Delaware casinos added table games in June and SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia is due to open next month with 40 tables that will need 300 workers.

In most cases, the casinos have plenty of table games, such as blackjack, craps and roulette — just not enough people to work them 24 hours a day.

Mount Airy Casino Resort on Thursday will give prospective dealers an added carrot to get training. During two seminars to be held in Tannersville, Mount Airy officials will offer to lend people the tuition money for training at Northampton Community College, as long as they agree to work at Mount Airy when they graduate.

“For someone who might be unemployed, $500 or $1,000 is a lot to come up with,” said Jim Tuthill, vice president of Mount Airy casino operations. “We’re removing that obstacle.”

Casinos pay the dealers only about $5 an hour, but tips from gamblers bump a dealer’s total wage up to about $40,000 a year, according to casino officials. Tuthill said Mount Airy is looking to add as many as two dozen dealers to its stable of nearly 250.

Steve Dahle, vice president of marketing at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in Plains Township, which hired 300 dealers when it launched table games last month, said with attrition and expansion, it’s likely the casino will continue to hire.

Stepping in to help fill the void, Luzerne County Community College is partnering with World Wide Gaming Consultants, LLC, of Niagara, N.Y., to offer a five- week blackjack course that begins Sept. 27. The school is also offering a poker class.

The course fee is expected to be about $1,000.