Seminole Tribe to hire 3,650 card dealers

The Seminole Tribe of Florida expects to bring Vegas style slot-machine to its Tampa casino this summer with table games, including blackjack, to follow by fall.

The state's first legal games of blackjack and baccarat will debut at the Seminole Hard Rock casino in Hollywood, probably in June, said Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming.

The tribe plans to start hiring 3,650 card dealers for its seven Florida casinos, he said today at the Seminole Casino in Cocounut Creek. The hiring will be done at local Seminole Tribe casinos and at job fairs in gambling cities such as Atlantic City, NJ. and Gulfport, Miss.

Under a compact with the state, the tribe has the right to run Vegas-style slots and the card games in return for sharing profits with the state. The deal is being challenged at the Florida Supreme Court in a suit filed against Gov. Charlie Crist by legislative leaders. They say the governor doesn't have the authority to sign a compact without legislative approval.

The Seminoles have put about 1,800 new slot machines at their casinos in Hollywood and Coconut Creek. Tampa is next in line, but the availability of slot machines and the time to reconfigure casino floor space will delay their arrival until sometime this summer, Allen said.   

Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen outlined the Tampa expansion during a morning news conference at the tribe's Coconut Creek casino, where 700 of the Vegas-style machines began operating today.

The tribe expects to eventually install about 15,000 so-called Class III machines across its seven Florida casinos. The first 1,000 opened for business in January at its Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood.

Tribal casinos have traditionally offered bingo-based machines, on which players compete against one another instead of the casino.

-- Steve Huettel, Times staff writer

Comments

[Steve]

Requirements to be a card dealer???

[The Clown]

We will be forever cursed with Loose Slots and Cheap Cigarettes for the atrocities of our forefathers...

[Johnny C]

Gambling is an affront to civilized peoples, not as much as genocide, pillaging on a national scale, using your cavalry to kill women and children, and infecting surrendered prisoners with small pox, but it's something.

[Gary]

More job information and an application available at www.workhardrock.com.

[kitty]

Are these jobs going to pay a livable wage, or is it more $7 an hour jobs like those are being created statewide?

i think dealers could make nearly $20-$25/hr

Dealers make good cash in what is a suprizingly highly regulated industry. If you have a clean record, no visible tattoos, and a generaly "clean cut" appearance you can qualify for training.

Make good money - options to transfer easily to other states to deal there.

Good times.

[Funfun]

Vegas slots! Woohoo!

[john]

where does one get thier traning at

[betty l. dunn]

I filled out an application and was checking it out when it went blank. How do I know if it was receives? I had submitted it once.

[betty]

I filled out an application and was checking it out when it went blank. How do I know if it was received? I had submitted it once.

[Justin]

This is the Hard Rock, right? Why would they care about tatoos? I was just at the HR in Vegas 2 weeks ago...and it seemed like you couldn't get a job there unless you were plastered with tatoos.

[JC]

Having tattoos has always been a standardized no no in the business. As one wrote no visable, meaning not on hands, or face etc. Casino employees need to be neat and trimmed. Some are a little more relaxed.