Careers in the gaming industry: when success is not a gamble!

Well, it seems there's no biz as the gaming biz! Thanks to the spread of casinos all around US and the rising popularity of poker, more and more students are asking for casino-related courses, while current casino professionals take seminars to integrate experience and accademical formation.

Here you find some very interesting articles on this topic.

*** FIRST ARTICLE ***
Tulane University makes three top appointments, welcoming Alan L. Silver






Abstract from Mississippi Gaming News
BILOXI — University College at Tulane University, the Biloxi campus of one of the nation’s top universities, announced three key appointments. Alan L. Silver has been named the director of Tulane’s casino resort management program, the first such program in Mississippi. John Olson, a computer science faculty member and key administrator at Tulane’s Edgewater Mall facility, has been named assistant dean of University College and director of the Mississippi Coast campus. Tom Brosig, a longtime leader in the gaming industry, has been named a Faculty Fellow of University College at Tulane.

Silver, a marketer and educator with extensive experience in the casino and resort management industries, was introduced at a news conference in Biloxi by Richard Marksbury, dean of University College at Tulane University.

"I’m excited that our new program —and the Mississippi Coast campus in general — will benefit from Alan’s experience and enthusiasm," said Marksbury. "He brings a wealth of new ideas and approaches — and his vast professional network — to the Casino Resort Management program as we take the lead in providing leadership training for the number one industry in the region."

"Education is vital to succeeding and advancing in the casino industry," said Silver during his introductory news conference. "We want our best talent to be able to stay in-state and move into leadership positions, rather than importing talent from other states."

Silver noted he hopes to have online versions corresponding to classroom casino/resort management courses available within a year. "The casino business is 24/7/365," he said. "It’s difficult to break loose at set times to be in a specific place. When we’re online, we can extend our management education to people in the industry in all parts of the state and region."

He also hopes to focus on attracting international students, offering internships with leading casino/resort management companies, and building a gaming library with the most up-to-date information on the industry.

After 14 years of marketing and advertising experience in other fields, Silver first entered the gaming industry in 1995 with his appointment as director of marketing for Sigma Game in Las Vegas. He also held the position of director of marketing for Aristocrat in Reno and Casino Data Systems in Las Vegas, and as director of corporate marketing and strategic development for Leisure Time Casinos and Resorts.

Silver served as vice president of marketing for three tribal casinos and hotels before starting a consulting business that works with many casino operations. As the president of A.L. Silver & Associates Advertising and Marketing, a successful casino consulting and marketing communications firm, he has extensive experience in strategic consulting and market research in international gaming arenas, including Russia.

Silver currently teaches casino marketing and hospitality marketing as an adjunct professor in the Department of Hotel Management and the Department of Tourism & Convention Administration at the top-rated William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He has also taught at the Community College of Southern Nevada and Antelope Valley College, where his courses have included Introduction to Marketing and Introduction to .S. History.

Silver has a master’s of business administration degree with a major in marketing management from the University of Southern California, and a master’s degree in history from California State University in Sacramento and has taught U.S. history at the college level. He is a member of the American Marketing Association (AMA), Casino Management Association (CMA), and Phi Alpha Theta honor society.

Olsen, the new assistant dean as of Aug. 2, succeeds Lou Campomenosi, who will become a member of the faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi while he continues to teach political science as an adjunct faculty member at University College.

"We are fortunate to have had John with us in Mississippi from the very beginning," said Marksbury. "It was a little over two years ago that we conducted a search for a full-time faculty member to teach computer classes at our yet-to-be-built campus in Mississippi. John emerged as the best of the applicants.

*** SECOND ARTICLE ***
University College looks to hit jackpot
By Emily Hohenwarter
September 24, 2004
Verbatim from http://www.thehullabaloo.com

University College is offering courses in casino resort management this semester as it looks to fill the void of qualified managers in the region's burgeoning casino industry. This program is the first of its kind offered on the Gulf Coast and one of the few such programs in the country.

Courses are currently offered at University College's satellite campus in Biloxi, Miss. at Edgewater Mall, where students can earn an associate's degree, a minor or a post-baccalaureate certificate in the field. Next semester some basic courses will be offered at the Uptown campus as well.

Heading up the program for University College is Alan Silver, a veteran of the casino industry. Silver has taught and supervised casino management in the past and was selected for the job from a large applicant pool.

"I'm excited that our new program and the Mississippi Coast campus in general will benefit from Alan's experience and enthusiasm," Richard Marksbury, dean of University College, said.

Silver said he was "tickled pink" to be in charge of the department and looks forward to a productive term.

The prominence of the casino industry in New Orleans, Biloxi and Mississippi as a whole - where it's the number one service industry - made the creation of such a curriculum necessary. For those that complete it, opportunities for jobs and promotions are almost guaranteed.

Marksbury lauded the new casino resort management program as "providing leadership and training for the number one industry in the region" and said that Tulane University would "take the lead" in educating those interested in the field. Silver said that such a program would "give people the tools needed to succeed, and to move up in the ranks."

Silver also noted that a school offering degrees in the casino industry, like Tulane's University College, will serve the needs of the community as a whole by providing residents with the skills needed to get better jobs.

"This program is for everyone. Those that are already in the business can use University College classes to help advance in the field, and those searching for a career can get a degree from an excellent school and be competitive for the best and most needed casino jobs, the middle to upper level management positions," Silver said.

An associate's degree in casino resort management can be obtained in two years, with eight courses taken focusing intently on the field. A minor requires a simultaneous major and six courses, and a post-baccalaureate certificate calls for one year or eight courses. Courses run the gamut from "Casino Resort Marketing" to "Gaming and Society" to "Cash Management and Cage Operations."

Harrah's casino recently endowed Tulane's University College with $250,000 for use towards scholarships for minority students interested in pursuing degrees in casino management. Individual scholarships are in amounts of $1,500 and allotted for use in the casino resort management program only. Currently, applications are being accepted for the spring semester and can be downloaded on the University College Web site: www.uc.tulane.edu.


*** THIRD ARTICLE ***
Higher ed caters to casino careers
Verbatim from http://www.statenews.com, by Jaclyn Roeschke

Students hoping to make a living while listening to the cha-ching of slot machines and the sounds of cards being shuffled now have a variety of educational options that would train them for a job in the casino industry.
Because of an increased interest in gaming and casinos, officials at about seven universities nationwide say they are adding a host of casino classes and degrees to their course options in order to prepare students for a career near the craps table.

Although MSU has only two of these classes and do not plan to add anymore, university officials say their gaming-bound grads are as prepared as any other.

"A lot of courses at MSU are related to casinos," said Sherri Henry, coordinator of Academic Students Services in the School of Hospitality Business. "Casinos themselves are multi-faceted and are not just about gambling. Our management-based courses will prepare students for lodging, resort-management and many other aspects of casinos."

The MSU classes - Introduction to the Casino Industry and Casino Operations and Management - are more focused on mathematics, hospitality techniques and management strategies, she said.

About 300 students are enrolled in the classes, which are offered sporadically during certain semesters.

Other universities offer courses about gambling laws, facial recognition for casino security and operating on sovereign American Indian ground, but Henry said MSU prepares students more for managing casinos than being involved in gambling.

"There isn't any one degree here that would get a student into the casino industry," Henry said. "What we try to do is give students a well-rounded experience and different tools to market themselves. We offer a different type of opportunity and we are proud of that."

Nationwide, 18- to 24-year-olds are becoming more interested and involved in casinos and gambling, said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling.

Because of the popularity of television broadcasts like the "World Series of Poker," gambling is becoming glamorized and more students want their share of the pot, he said.

In many states, the rise of casino popularity has helped to lift a struggling economy.

Nationwide, 443 commercial casinos brought in about $27 billion in gross revenue and employed more than 350,000 workers in 2003.

In order to build up the economy, states need people to work in the casino industry, said Alan Silver, director of the Casino Resort Management program at Tulane University.

"A lot of governments are realizing they don't need to tax citizens to get money - just look toward casinos," Silver said. "You look at Mississippi, and it was an area that was depressed before the advent of 12 casinos on the Gulf Coast. Gaming has brought a lot of jobs and opportunity to the area."

About 450 students are enrolled in Tulane's casino courses, which include classes on casino psychology, casino impact on society, and casino marketing and security.

"In order to get into higher-level positions, experience alone is not going to do it," Silver said.

And San Diego State University officials have added a professional certificate in casino gaming.

Adding the classes was a must, said Khadija Basir, coordinator for the college of extended studies certificate program at San Diego State University.

"People are really interested in casinos because we are right on top of them," said Basir, adding that casinos employ about 25,000 in the city.

In Michigan, the three commercial Detroit casinos employed 8,087 people in 2003, while paying $250.2 million in taxes.

Revenues at all Michigan casinos continue to increase, said Eric Bush, spokesman for the Michigan Gaming Control Board.

The 17 tribal casinos in the Great Lakes state made about $871 million in 2003, and the Detroit-based casinos pulled in about $1.13 billion.

"There is a market here for gaming," Bush said. "We are a state that a lot people visit for vacations and tourism. The Detroit casinos draw people from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Canada."

But in order to get a job in those state casinos, some Michigan casino officials said experience could help more than classes.

"If a student is serious about a career in this industry, you want to do anything you can to make yourself well-rounded," said Joseph Sowmick, spokesman for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe at Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort. "While that could include declaring a minor in the discipline, I can't stress enough the importance of internships."

While Henry says there is no discussion at MSU about expanding the university's casino classes into a minor or degree program, some students say the popularity of the poker tables and casino life would make courses on the subject appealing.

"I'd definitely take some of the classes if more were offered," chemical engineering sophomore Curt Saxton said. "It's exciting playing or being involved in the games, and I think especially psychological classes about gaming would be something neat that a lot of students would take."