The upcoming Victoria Gate Casino in the city of Leeds, in the north of England, is reported to have received over a 1,000 applicants for croupier training.
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ith a capacity of 1,400, the new venue will be the third largest casino in the UK, featuring a 50,000 square feet gaming area that is projected to generate 205 jobs, ranging from retail and food handling to security and casino operations.
Since the hiring announcement three months ago, the casino has been inundated with applications: “The demand for career information in the last few months has been incredible both from people in existing hospitality and gaming roles, to those in education and those not currently on the employment ladder,” said Patrick Noakes, venue director at Victoria Gate Casino.
After reviewing the applications. the first batch of 35 employees has been sent to the Casino School, a six-week training program aimed at preparing the trainees for the VIP opening, scheduled for early 2017.
All the trainees are drawn from the UK’s NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) category and are mostly from the surrounding areas of Leeds.
“We are building a best-of-class venue that covers not just gaming, but dining and entertainment, big game sports action as well as corporate hospitality” Noakes added.
“As such, we want to build the leading leisure team in the city and give them the very best training – they are learning a real craft, so wherever possible we want to back that up with a professional qualification.”
The training program was designed to cover a number of relevant subjects, including poker, blackjack, and roulette games, as well as other areas like health and safety standards, gambling laws, social responsibility, and odds-based courses in mathematics, and once completed will award the new employees a UK-recognised diploma in Gambling Operations.
Victoria Gate Casino includes a 150-player poker room, 24 live gaming tables, 140 slot machines and 75 electronic gaming terminals, in addition to its gaming facilities, the venue will offer wall-to-wall screens for watching sport, a restaurant, function space and two bars.
