Enough happy casino workers?
The head of the leading gaming trade organization on Tuesday touted the satisfaction of the industry’s nationwide work force.
But questions are still being raised about how Las Vegas resorts will fill some 113,500 jobs being created by roughly $30 billion in new development in Southern Nevada.
American Gaming Association President Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. used the opening morning of the Global Gaming Expo to point to a survey of casino industry employees about their job satisfaction. More than 85 percent told the association’s pollster they were happy workers.
"Our companies can take pride in this record of achievement with our employees," Fahrenkopf said. "We’ve always said our employees are the most valuable asset of our industry. We’re a service industry. The employee that goes face to face with that customer is important. The fact they are conveying to that customer their job satisfaction helps with the growth of our industry."
The survey, conducted by national pollster Peter Hart, found that benefits, pay and advancement opportunities were rated highly by casino employees. Some 42 percent of the employees surveyed have worked in gaming for more than a decade while 30 percent had been employed by the same casino company for 10 years or more.
Hart said more than two-thirds of the employees surveyed said they had access to better health care since they began working in the gaming industry, including groups who were underinsured in other jobs.
"We found that casino industry employees see their jobs as opening doors and allowing them to flourish in different aspects of their lives," Hart said.
Casino industry officials hope that job satisfaction is understood as gaming companies head out to fill jobs fueled by a nationwide growth. Not only is Las Vegas participating in the booming casino development market, Fahrenkopf said the growth is being felt nationally.
MGM Mirage opened an expansion to the MGM Grand Detroit in October, doubling the hotel-casino’s work force to 3,000 employees. An expansion is also set to open shortly at a second Detroit casino, which could also double its employee base.
Meanwhile, in Atlantic City, three new multibillion-dollar resorts have been announced that could fuel development into the next decade and could create some 20,000 jobs. In Pennsylvania, the $412 million Mount Airy Casino opened in the Poconos, the first of the state’s planned five stand-alone casinos, with more than 1,000 permanent jobs.
The center of the action, however, is in Las Vegas.
Earlier this year, Deutsche Bank Securities, in a report to investors, said current Clark County growth rates could lead to some 25,000 jobs left unfilled. The report was written before additional hotel-casinos were announced this year, such as a joint development between MGM Mirage and Kerzner International Holdings on the north end of the Strip, and plans by the Elad Group to build a $5 billion version of New York’s Plaza Hotel on the site of the now-imploded New Frontier.
The $1.8 billion Palazzo kicks off a wave of new development when it opens Dec. 20. The resort is expected to employ 4,000 workers, including 1,100 who are transferring from The Venetian.
MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said his company is already taking steps to hire some 12,000 workers expected to staff the $7.8 billion CityCenter development, which is slated to open in the latter part of 2009. The company expects to fill half the jobs with workers from MGM Mirage’s 10 other Strip resorts, thereby creating hiring opportunities at those casinos.
The human resources roles have already been filled for CityCenter and hiring programs are being formulated.
Feldman said the gaming association’s employee survey was good news for the industry.
"When you see other industries cutting back and struggling, by comparison, we have growth and financial success," Feldman said. "The industry has evolved incredibly over the years. The (employee) programs now in place weren’t around 20 years ago."
Boyd Gaming Corp. expects to hire about 10,000 workers to staff the $4.8 billion Echelon project, which isn’t expected to open until fall 2010. Company spokesman Rob Stillwell said a national job recruitment will take place to ensure all job classifications will have an adequate number of applicants.
Stillwell said his company experienced similar job hiring concerns four years ago when it opened the Borgata, Atlantic City’s first new casino in more than a decade.
"The interest in the Borgata was off the chart; we believe there will be similar interest in Echelon," Stillwell said. "However, we’re not going sit back and wait. We’ll have a recruitment campaign and make sure all channels of communication are available."
Station Casinos is comfortable it will find the 1,700 employees needed to staff the $675 million Aliante Station in North Las Vegas, which opens at the end of next year. The company had more than 100,000 applications for some 3,000 jobs at Red Rock Resort, which opened in April 2006. Company spokeswoman Lori Nelson said the hiring process is expected to begin six months from opening.
"Aliante Station is a much smaller scale than Red Rock and we feel comfortable being ahead of the other casinos under construction," Nelson said.
The Global Gaming Expo, which runs through Thursday at the Las Vegas Convention Center, is closed to the public. The convention features seminars on the industry and financial presentations by most of gaming’s publicly traded casino operators and gaming equipment makers. The G2E’s main attraction is a trade show, which will feature 750 exhibitors inside the 330,000-square-foot exhibit hall.
Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or (702) 477-3871.
