COWLITZ INDIAN RESERVATION — Part of a casino’s allure is that, with a little luck, we can change our fortunes.
That feeling isn’t exclusive to people who want to play a couple of hands of blackjack. Those in search of new careers may find themselves heading to dealer school on a promise of good wages, benefits and upward mobility.
“I have always wanted to work at a casino and be a dealer,” said Cari Lange, a former medical assistant living in Vancouver.
For the past two weeks, Lange and a dozen other prospective dealers have attended a free, 12-week school hosted by Ilani Casino Resort — held in a construction trailer a few hundred feet from the $510 million project.
If You Go
• What: Ilani Casino Resort Career Fair.
• When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14.
• Where: Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds, 17402 N.E. Delfel Road, Ridgefield.
• Information: 1-877-GOILANI and ilaniresort.com
On Friday, they crowded a pair of craps tables and practiced the careful procedures of running the game. There are more than 300 dealers scheduled to be trained in various games before the casino’s opening in April.
“I wanted a place where I can get benefits and retire,” said Kristina Herren, a 39-year-old bartender from Battle Ground. Plus, she said, she needed to find a job that could match what she makes, with tips, at the restaurant where she works.
Lange, 37, wasn’t looking for a new job after the births of her twin sons. A new career typically meant more training or schooling. If hired, a casino job would give her a job she felt suited her personality.
“This is the perfect job for me,” she said. “It’s fast-paced with a lot of people and activity.”
Some attending the classes were former employees of nearby cardrooms, which fought to prevent the casino from being built at all. Sixteen miles from Portland, Ilani could become the dominant game in the metropolitan area. Jason Gardner, 43, said he left the cardrooms to, among other things, be on the casino’s ground floor.
“The venue is going to be massive,” he said.
The casino has been in a hiring blitz since December. A career fair today expects to draw thousands of people, clutching r?sum?s, to the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds. Tribal officials say they have more than 1,000 positions that need to be filled before it opens.
There are jobs in more parts of the casino than gaming. The 368,000-square-foot center includes 15 commercial spaces to be filled with shops, bars and restaurants. Not to mention security, maintenance, administrative work and all else.
“It’s difficult to say how many people will attend, but we’re planning on several thousand,” said Kara Fox-LaRose, president and general manager of the casino.
None of the restaurants, bars or shops have been announced yet.
The casino, jointly developed by the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and a subsidiary of the Mohegan Tribe of Indians in Connecticut, only started expanding its executive leadership and upper management in the past few months. Fox-LaRose said last week they had 32 people in management, up from 12 employees in November.
Table games manager Tommy Tomillo was hired in early December. The 47-year-old worked at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, owned by the Mohegan Tribe, for the past 20 years. He accepted the job 48 hours after he applied. He and his wife flew to Clark County two weeks later.
“We made the decision, flew here Dec. 8 and left the kids with their grandparents,” he said. “My wife flew back, packed up the house, rented a house here, then she just signed a contract to build a home in Ridgefield.”
Bill Caswell, another table manager, worked at Mohegan Sun with Tomillo. Like Tomillo, the 47-year-old is a 20-year veteran of gaming and moved to Ilani for a promotion. He studied computer science before making a career out of gaming.
Though he lamented how lucrative a career in computer science could have been in today’s world, he said he was glad to be where he was.
“It’s definitely not a dead-end job,” he said. “You start here, as a dealer, and you can only go up.”
