Mississippi Casinos
Is it worth the gamble?
Casino Dealer Schools
When you hear the word school images of books, papers, and pens probably come to mind, but at the Crescent School of Gaming & Bartending in Gulfport, Miss., they’re substituting books for poker chips.
Crescent Schools were founded in 1983 in New Orleans, Louis. They were created with the purpose to train and produce professional bartenders, beverage managers, and casino dealers. The Crescent Schools now have four locations in addition to New Orleans. They are found in Las Vegas, Tunica Resorts, and Gulfport, Miss.
Tunica Resorts and Gulfport, Miss. are two of the prominent casino destinations in Mississippi today. The Gulfport location currently has a student population of 230, of which Darrel Washington, Admissions Associate, says is very well mixed.
“There are almost equal numbers of male and females,” Washington said. “The typical age of students is 21-60 and everyone is looking for jobs.”
The Crescent Schools start new classes every Monday. Classes run Monday through Friday, morning and night, and there are two options for courses. Crescent Schools offer a 350-hour Two Game Dealing Program and a 750-hour Comprehensive Dealing Program. The students receive “on the job training” in a room that imitates an actual casino floor. The games covered in the courses include blackjack, poker, roulette, craps, and mini-baccarat.
Students who graduate from the Crescent Schools have an advantage over others because the schools are some of the few accredited dealer schools in the United States. They are nationally accredited by the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training, as well as, the United States Department of Education to participate in Federal Financial Assistance programs.
“Students who can’t afford the $700 to $10,000 for classes are able to apply and receive financial aid to pay for their training,” said Washington.
The schools are also licensed by the Nevada Commission on Post - Secondary Education, the Louisiana Department of Education, the Mississippi Department of Education, and the Mississippi Gaming Commission.
The Crescent Schools are the only accredited casino dealer schools in Mississippi which provides the graduates with plenty of job opportunities once they graduate.
“The Treasure Bay Casino, Island View, Silver Slipper, and Golden Nugget are most supportive of our graduates,” said Washington.
Samantha Rippon
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CASINO INDUSTRY
Casinos in Tunica, Mississippi are experiencing a déjà vu moment as they face the worst national economy since opening their doors in 1992.
Casinos were originally brought to Tunica to improve the economy and to create an influx of jobs for Mississippi residents, specifically those in Tunica. At the height of Tunica’s gaming industry, 15,000 people were employed, according to Webster Franklin, President and CEO of the Convention of Visitors Bureau in Tunica. Today, 6,970 are employed in the Northern Mississippi casino region, according to the Mississippi Gaming Quarterly Survey.
Following Harrah’s closing on June 2, 2014, 1,300 employees were put out of work.
“The gaming industry as a whole has not really changed their product offering. You still have that blackjack table, you still have that slot machine,” said Franklin. “The games have changed some but you still have that basic premise. I think that’s the struggle that the gaming industry as a whole has, not just in Tunica, but how does it remain relevant in the changing environment. When that takes place, and if there are changes that the gaming industry comes up with, will the regulators keep pace that will allow for laws to change so that we remain competitive in changing with the industry itself?”
Casinos are turning their focus to the customer’s experience by employing people who can offer them more than the chance to win. The industry has geared more toward the entertainment side of the business.
“Our biggest thing is people who are customer-centric. They have to be focused on the customer because with people not spending as much money as they used to to game, you got to be offering them more than just a chance to win. You need to offer them a night of entertainment, a good relationship with the employee to keep their loyalty,” said Nancy Rosenburg, Director of Recruitment and Training and Human Resources Administrator at Horseshoe Casino in Tunica.
Casinos are taking a different approach when looking to hire new employees. At Horseshoe Casino, an interview panel method is used. Job candidates are placed into a group of up to 30 people to answer questions.
“We just ask basic questions, like ‘please introduce yourself and if a movie were to be made about you, who would play you in that role and why.’ It’s a fun question, but it gives you an idea of what people think about themselves, and who they also like in the entertainment industry because we consider ourselves entertainment,” Rosenburg said.
Rosenburg’s employees range from ages 21 to 80.
“There’s no set demographic. Now at horseshoe, you cannot be a start up dealer. What we usually do that at Roadhouse. We take the people right out of dealing school and we put them at the tables over there, once they have developed their skill and gotten really comfortable then they can move over to Horseshoe,” Rosenburg said.
The employees have no shortage of options and learn how to handle multiple games. There is an average of 10,087 slot games, 311 table games, and 44 poker games in Mississippi, according to the Mississippi Gaming Commission Quarterly Survey from April 1 to June 30, 2014.
Roadhouse Casino also has the only surviving poker room in Tunica, which attracts both clientele and employees.
“We have beat out all the poker rooms so we have actually been able to attract not only all the players, but then the best poker dealers in the market to work at our poker room. These dealers are willing to work on call, which means we just call them when we need them, until we can get them a more regular schedule,” Rosenburg said.
Besides the economic effects, the casino industry is also feeling seasonal pressure. According to Franklin, the springtime is the most popular time in Tunica for gambling, while winter months suffer.
“March, April, and May are probably our biggest times. Then it goes throughout the summer. It begins to slow down in November through Christmas,” Franklin said. “Then it comes back pretty big during the New Year, the celebration, that type of thing. We will fall back off in January, February, and come back in March. So the winter months it goes down considerably. It’s the holidays, people are watching what they’re spending more.”
Horseshoe Casino appeals to their higher clientele by offering a plane program that brings people in to gamble from out of state. This gives high rollers easier access to gamble at their casinos. The plane program is an example of the effort of casinos trying to override the lull in the economy.
“The gaming industry right now as a whole is going through a transition in that the 60 year old of 15 years ago is much different from the 60 year old today. They expect a lot different. And in 15 years, that 60 year old is going expect a whole lot different,” said Franklin. “The challenge to the gaming industry as a whole is how does it remain a viable form of entertainment for the discretionary dollar, that is limited.”
(Ginny Luckie, Lindsay Langston, Samantha Rippon)
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CASINO ENFORCEMENT
Many people have never been in a casino. Even those who have, however, have no idea what kind of security is needed to run a gaming establishment.
There are several levels of security set up to ensure safety and compliance for Tunica casinos. Among these are the security department within the establishment, the Mississippi Gaming Commission Tunica Field Office and the Tunica County Sheriff’s Office.
At Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, approximately 100 people are employed in the security department. Staff members also receive assistance from the technology installed throughout the grounds.
“Our technology is based on three main priorities: protecting the employees, protecting the guests or protecting the physical property,” TU2 Security Manager Jason Williams said. “In all three cases we would consider those company assets.”
Among technology used are key trackers, ID and fingerprint scanners and cameras. Cameras are designed to be undetectable and their whereabouts kept secret.
“It would be what we would consider proprietary, so to discuss the number of cameras we have on the casino floor or what the cameras see or to discuss whether or not we use undercover agents or to discuss daily routines of the individuals could give you an opportunity to manipulate areas that we may be weak in to perpetrate a crime against the casino,” Williams said.
The Horseshoe Casino Security Department works closely with the Mississippi Gaming Commission and the Tunica County Sheriff’s Department.
“I actually employ deputies for various events, much like most law enforcement officers who subcontract out,” Williams said, “depending on the event we would subcontract out Tunica County as well.”
The security department takes whatever steps necessary to ensure the success of its ultimate goal, which is securing the well being of its visitors.
“There’s a variety of reasons that my staff is here to include obviously the general safety of all the people that come onto the property,” said Williams, “as well as ensure that the individuals that are here are of proper age to be here, and there is a perception that casinos have an abundance of money and therefore we have to protect that.”
Another individual that the Horseshoe Security Department deals with on a daily basis is a gaming agent from the Mississippi Gaming Commission Tunica Field Office.
Gaming agents work for the state to perform a variety of audits for the property to ensure that it is operating within the approved guidelines of the gaming regulations as well as those of Tunica County. They also investigate complaints and disputes filed by patrons.
“A lot of times people assume we’re in cahoots with the casino when that’s actually not true,” Gaming Commission Division Director Patricia Johnson said. “We’re here to help and listen.”
The Tunica Field Office, which is made up of an enforcement division and a compliance division, is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is comprised of 11 agents.
While complaints are not uncommon, the most frequent cases agents deal with are dealer-patron collusion and employee embezzlement. The field office averages one arrest every month, but that number often increases around holiday time.
“It goes in spurts, usually from October to January,” said field agent Scott Kistler. “Because of the holidays people tend to need money more so they tend to take money out of their cash drawers.”
The Tunica County Field Office has a specific list of responsibilities when dealing with local casinos. Issues that the field office is not responsible for are handled by the sheriff’s office. These lesser issues might include a small theft, a domestic dispute in the hotel or rape or murder.
“We’ve never butted heads as far as the jurisdiction,” Kistler said. “We work very well with the sheriff’s office.”
The sheriff’s office is another level of safety that frequently gets called in to make arrests after the casino security calls to report a problem.
“There are security rooms where they place people until law enforcement gets there,” said Bettye Hale, Executive Administrative Assistant at the Tunica County Sheriff’s Office. “Normally the sheriff’s department has different zones and there are officers in that zone that respond to the calls in that area, so they don’t have to come all the way from the station, and they’re there within just a few minutes.”
Officers may be called in for any number of reasons, including bar fights, casino robberies or removal of persons not allowed on the casino’s property.
Other crime reports often take longer to uncover. An example of this is prostitution, which requires officers more time and patience.
“They’ll set up situations and the officer will be under cover, and when the women request money and that type of thing they’ll go in and make the bust,” said Hale. “This will go on for a while and they have to be very careful because they don’t know who they are exactly.”
One of the most common type of calls officers receive are those related to the deaths of older casino visitors who expire during their visit.
“When you think about it, a lot of senior citizens are retired and they’re just going to have a good time and they expire,” said Hale. “That’s pretty common.”
In all cases, effective communication with casino security and trust that each branch will do their job solidifies the safety of the casino environment.
“I think the security and surveillance people are so good at what they do that they catch a lot of that before,” said Hale.
(Caroline Callaway, Clancy Smith, Alane Parris)