Penn National seeks help from colleges to train casino workers

By Encarnacion Pyle

Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS

Where do you turn to quickly train up to 2,000 people in such jobs as blackjack dealer and slot-machine technician?

Penn National Gaming, which plans to open the Hollywood Casino Columbus by the end of 2012, hopes local colleges will be the answer.

The company says it has had discussions with at least three central Ohio schools, including Columbus State Community College, to create several programs to train workers for the $400 million casino.

A growing number of colleges nationwide have added casino-related training in the past several years as more states legalize table-game gambling.

“The nearest gaming operation to the area is in Cincinnati, so we don’t really have an existing work force that we can draw on,” said Karen Bailey, spokeswoman for the Wyomissing, Pa.-based company.

Bailey said Penn National has met with officials at Columbus State, Franklin University and Central Ohio Technical College in Newark. But the company is waiting for its new general manager, company veteran Ameet Patel, to create a human-resources plan once he begins his duties Aug. 1.

Bailey said the casino will need people in areas such as accounting, food service, human resources, information technology, maintenance, marketing and security. But she said the largest need for training likely will be for table-game dealers and slot-machine technicians.

“They’ll represent a large proportion of our work force, and they’re labor-intensive jobs that require very specific skills,” she said.

Representatives of the local colleges said it is too early to tell if they can help Penn National, but they are excited about the opportunity.

“We stand ready to help customize a specific program for the company or help it tap into one or all of our credit and noncredit work force-development courses,” said Ann Signet, Columbus State’s supervisor of continuing and professional education.

Garry McDaniel, an associate dean and professor in Franklin’s MBA program, thinks the campus could provide business-management and leadership training to Penn National.

To get ahead of other schools, the Knox County Career Center in Mount Vernon offered classes in blackjack and baccarat dealing last fall, but it had to cancel the courses because not enough students signed up.

The center hopes to offer the individual courses again next year, along with a full nine-month casino program that includes classes in customer service, hospitality and surveillance, said Jane Marlow, the adult-education director.

“We’ve had some manufacturing jobs go away, and this is a great new industry for Ohio and our students,” she said.