5,500 apply for 1,600 Cleveland casino jobs

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

In a city struggling with declining population and high poverty and unemployment rates, a casino opening next year has offered a big jackpot: 1,600 jobs.

Statewide, four casinos will provide more than 6,000 jobs.

The Cleveland casino operator said Tuesday it received about 5,500 applications during the first week of online applications for 500 table game/poker dealer and supervisor jobs, including pitches from stay-at-home moms, factory workers and hotel-travel industry veterans.

People hoping to become a poker dealer at Horseshoe Casino Cleveland have until noon Sept. 30 to apply. At the first-week application rate, the casino could get more than 20,000 applicants.

Shnicka Shuler, 23, of Youngstown, a Cleveland State University senior, said she might consider applying if her law-school plans don’t work out.

She predicted that the casino pay scale would attract blue-collar Clevelanders trying to upgrade their livelihoods. “Dealer is higher on the scale than McDonald’s,” she said.

The casino said the online application process, which began Sept. 7, had attracted a wide range of people.

Cleveland’s most recent jobless rate, in July, was 10.6 percent, and Ohio’s was 9 percent, with 529,000 people looking for work.