With table games at Pa. casinos come jobs

Some serious logistical challenges stand between revenue-hungry Pennsylvania and the financial promise of table games being placed in the state's casinos, which have been slots-only to date.

The possibility of table games being approved as a way to help breach a serious budget gap has been quietly discussed for months. But the prospects seem more likely as Gov. Rendell and the legislature battle to create a new budget.

As Harrisburg warms to the idea of blackjack, roulette, and other lucrative forms of gambling happening in the casinos, the nine that are up-and-running and the five (including two in Philadelphia) still to be opened, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and the casino operators would be confronted with hiring and training additional regulators, auditors, and thousands of workers to staff the gaming tables.

The board would face the mighty task of implementing table games as early as possibly next year, even though its own budget was recently cut. A bill signed into law Aug. 19 by Rendell decreased the board's annual budget to $31.6 million from $33.3 million in the previous year, a 5 percent decrease.

Despite the reduction, the gaming board's executive director said the relatively new board - which came into being six months after the gambling law passed in July 2004 - was up to the task.

"We have been an organization that has been effectively regulating casinos, even though they are slot operations, for three years now," Kevin O'Toole said yesterday. "We have a lot of things in place, but it will still be a challenging project."

O'Toole said he and others had gone to the legislature to seek "an adequate supplemental appropriation" to address the board's growing list of responsibilities, including the possible arrival of table games.

O'Toole said the board was looking to hire a minimum of 35 to 45 new regulators and additional auditors. On average, each of the existing casinos would need four or five additional regulators with experience in casino compliance.

"We will be training our existing compliance representatives, along with the new ones we hire to supplement our staff," he said.

Each of the Pennsylvania casinos is expected to add 50 to 100 table games. The final number of regulators and auditors will depend on the size of the table-game operations, and how quickly they get implemented, O'Toole said.

Among their chief duties, the new regulators would be charged with monitoring the collection of revenue from the tables, and how that revenue is moved from a table game to the count room by casino personnel.

State Sen. Tommy Tomlinson (R., Bucks), who introduced his table-games legislation earlier this week in a committee in Harrisburg, estimated that tables would create more than 10,000 direct jobs statewide. These positions included the dealers, pit bosses, and security officers to staff them.

A recent gaming-industry analysis says it takes 9.75 staffers for each table game in a casino.

The casinos would be responsible for hiring the staff for blackjack, craps, poker, and other games, and posting the job openings.

"Our intention would be to hire from the local population and train them accordingly," Ron Reese, spokesman for the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, said yesterday.

The board has estimated it would need six to nine months to get table-game operators hired, trained, and licensed on the tables.