WV Training Dealers for New Table Games

With the voters’ approval, two counties (so far) will be adding table games to their existing slot machines. Only Kanawha County is left to vote on the measure, but two of the three counties that have already voted have voted to bring in the table games. But with table games coming in, that means that you need dealers to run those games.

Enter West Virginia Northern Community College. The college will be training those that are interested in becoming dealers for any one of the tracks that are bringing in the games. The dealers will be trained on poker, blackjack, craps and roulette, and 330 potential dealers have already signed up.

Each of the types of games requires a significant amount of training. Four weeks for roulette, four weeks for blackjack, and so on – that is what the dealers are facing. If they decide that they want to deal craps, they are looking at eight weeks of training, 20 hours a day – as craps is the hardest game to learn. The college partnered with Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center to start offering the classes two weeks ago, and the next round will start at Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort for students located near that casino.

The tracks say that they will be adding more than 1,000 new jobs in the Ohio Valley with this expansion, and many of them are going to be dealer positions. Therefore they have to learn how the games work.

For those that are already employed by the casinos and are looking to make a change, if accepted into the position, they will take the classes but the casino will pay for them. Those coming from the outside will be responsible for their own tuition. However, $600 for classes compared to the $40,000 they can expect to make annually seems like a pretty good deal.



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