Gaming school set to open in Tunica

Matt Moore

Friday, Aug. 18, 2000 | 10:22 a.m.

JACKSON, Miss. - A coast-based casino school is expanding in Tunica County where gambling house operators say they are scrambling to find trained card dealers.

Mississippi's 31 casinos employ nearly 40,000 people and generate more than $650 million annually in salaries. The Mississippi Gaming Association found that more than 84 percent of casino workers are from Mississippi and 10 percent come from Tennessee to work in Tunica.

Tunica County has 10 casinos, said Ashley Skellie, a spokeswoman for the state Gaming Commission.

The school, operated by the Coast School of Gaming and Bartending Inc., deals only in casino gaming and offers no courses in business administration in a gaming environment.

Ken and Sue Sarna, who have operated the Coast School of Gaming in Biloxi for nearly a year, said Thursday they've already got more than 60 people signed up to learn the intricacies of casino games.

"We've already got the property," said Ken Sarna, after the Gaming Commission approved his request for a license to teach casino games.

The couple said the second school was tapped for Tunica because of the heavy concentration of casinos in the city and its proximity to Tennessee.

Amy Belk, a spokeswoman for Fitzgerald's Casino, said any new educational opportunities would be welcomed by the company.

Daniel Davila, a gaming industry analyst with SunCoast Hibernia Capital in New Orleans, said the school would be warranted and could help alleviate some of the training needs most casinos provide in-house.

"In any market it would make sense because the casino operators could just outsource the training of some of those fundamental functions," he said. "In the Gulf Coast there is a dearth of quality casino talent and any level of additional training is not only welcomed, but necessary."

The courses taught at Coastal average between five weeks and as long as 18 weeks, depending on the course study. Some students enroll to learn just one game, others learn more.

Final exams consist of real-time dealing and game playing, but in a controlled environment, Sue Sarna said.

"We have live tables, live chips, live cards," she said. "You're not going to get cashed out, but everything else is realistic."

When students complete the course they can use a job placement program at the school. The Sarnas have maintained an industry wide network of contacts to place their students at casinos throughout Mississippi, Louisiana and Canada.

"We don't send them out on an audition until we feel they're ready," Ken Sarna said.