More than 800 people seeking jobs braved ice and snow to attend a job fair held by Ilani Casino in Ridgefield, Washington last week.
The tribe is a building a $510 million casino near Cowlitz. The casino is 80 percent complete and slated to open in April. It will have a 100,000-square foot gaming floor with 2,500 slots and 75 gaming tables, along with dining and meeting facilities.
The casino will be hiring about 1,000 workers. It has gotten about 2,000 applications so far. Jobs highlighted at the fair included table game dealers, slot machine attendants, computer specialists, surveillance agents, to name a few. It will also have 15 commercial spaces that will be filled by shops and restaurants. It will be operated by a joint venture of the Cowlitz Tribe and the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority: Salishan-Mohegan LLC.
Kara Fox-LaRose, general manager and president for Ilani Casino, told the Daily News “There’s really something for everyone under one roof.”
The casino has hosted several previous job fairs and is operating training seminars for crap dealers plus holding interviews with potential dealers.
One job seeker, Cari Lange told the Columbian, “I have always wanted to work at a casino and be a dealer.” She, along with about 300 others, is currently attending a 12-week school for dealers. “This is the perfect job for me. It’s fast-paced with a lot of people and activity.”
Kristina Herren seeks a job as a bartender. “I wanted a place where I can get benefits and retire,” she said.
“We do things like that so we can pull the personality out and find those fun, friendly and energetic people that really work well in the hospitality environment, that are excited to come to work and engage,” said Fox-LaRose, who previously worked at other Mohegan-run casinos. “Not everyone is an extrovert so when you look at the breadth of the business and how dynamic it is with all of the positions, not all of them are guest-facing.”
She hopes to emulate the formula at the Mohegan casinos where the great majority of positions are filled by team members promoted from within.
She said the casino would continue to fill positions until the end of March so there would be time to train team members for the opening.
