Support of gaming exec training lacking

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004 | 10:34 a.m.

As casino gaming becomes legal in more and more states, primarily through the spread of tribal casinos, the need to train more casino executives is growing, a keynote speaker at the Global Gaming Expo said Monday.

But efforts to offer more courses in casino management are typically met with resistance outside of Nevada, said Thomas J. Brosig, faculty fellow at the private Tulane University and co-founder of Grand Casinos.

Only 17 universities and community colleges throughout the nation offer courses or programs in casino management, Brosig said, with UNLV, UNR and the Community College of Southern Nevada leading the way. About 350,000 to 400,000 people work in the industry nationwide, Brosig said.

Although casino executives spend most of their time in the non-gaming ends of the job, such as running restaurants, entertainment and hotels, Brosig said casino management courses are stigmatized by the same prejudices that people have toward the gaming industry as a whole.

Even in Mississippi, where legalized gambling employs about 12,000 people and accounts for 10 percent of state revenue, lawmakers there typically view the gaming industry as promoting immorality and have refused to allow Mississippi's public institutions to offer courses in casino management, Brosig said.

Whereas hotel executives are usually admired, Brosig said, hotel and casino executives are typically despised and lumped together with the mobsters who controlled the industry a generation ago. Lawmakers also often dismiss the need to educate casino executives, he said.

"Legislators think that when we're teaching gaming we're teaching people how to deal blackjack," Brosig said. "But what we're really doing is teaching people how to think like a CEO in an industry that has its own unique attributes."

After failing to convince officials at the University of Southern Mississippi to allow him to offer casino management courses there, Brosig brokered a deal to start an associate's degree program at Tulane's branch campus in Biloxi.

One of Brosig's first steps was to send Tulane officials to Las Vegas to learn about UNLV's program, and UNLV worked with Tulane to help the school develop the program in Biloxi, he said. UNLV even co-sponsors some of the seminars Tulane offers, Brosig said.

"They've been a tremendous help," Brosig said, noting that UNLV's nationally known program in casino management serves as a blueprint for other institutions. "They've had a great openness to sharing information."

UNLV is the only institution in the country to offer a bachelor's degree in gaming management, Stuart Mann, dean of the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, said. UNR offers a minor through its business college.

There are about 2,500 students in the college's hospitality management program, which includes gaming, and 400 to 500 graduate each year, Mann said.

"Most institutions that have anything at all about gaming management have an introductory survey course," Mann said.

The university prides itself on being a pioneer in advancing casino management training, Mann said, but faculty are generally willing to share information about the program with others. The hotel college gets about two to three calls a year from different institutions, Mann said.

"We don't feel that we are in competition," Mann said. "There is plenty of room for other institutions to graduate students in the industry. Our reputation stands on its own, we are in the best in the nation."