TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — If you’re traveling east on Margaret Avenue past the future Terre Haute Casino Resort site, about a mile and a half from that site you’ll find a small building on the north side of the road.
That building is currently the location of the Terre Haute Casino Resort Dealer Academy, where applicants are going through dealer training to fill spots on the future casino’s gaming floor.
So, how much interest is there in working on that gaming floor?
“We’ve had 1,000 people apply to become dealers,” Mike Rich, General Manager of the Terre Haute Casino Resort, said. “The interest level has been very high.”
Inside the academy’s doors, you’ll find several blackjack tables set up and dozens of applicants working together on their training.
You’ll also find Monique Young, a Table Games Analyst for the Terre Haute Casino Resort currently working as a Table Games Instructor to help oversee the dealer training.
Young has worked in casinos for a decade now after going through a similar blackjack academy in Cleveland.
“I actually was recruited from playing,” Young explained. “I was someone who was actually visiting the casino playing, just engaging and interacting with the staff. They said ‘you should come and try it’ and I said ‘no I don’t wanna come and try it’, but I leapt out and tried something different and it’s great.”
Dealer training takes place over the course of four weeks and include weekly evaluations and also auditions for the coveted positions.
Young said there are many entertaining jobs to find at a casino, and added that she’s particularly excited to work for a company building an all-new site with restaurants, sports wagering and a hotel included.
“This project being built from the ground up, it’s just so exciting,” Young said. “Me being from Ohio, advancing in my career, I’m just looking forward to the opportunity to build up this new team just how I was built up.”
As for the overall construction onsite, Rich said the progress is moving at a fast pace.
“If you walk inside our building, if you wait two weeks, the whole thing changes.”
WTWO-TV’s interview with Rich took place atop a paved parking lot on the casino resort grounds, and Margaret Ave. has a temporary traffic light outside of the site while the main road is also paved.
Inside, furniture is being moved into rooms, walls are being painted and drywall is almost nearly complete.
The gaming floor, restaurants and Crossroads Sports Bar are all set to open at the end of the first quarter or start of the second quarter in 2024.
“About 45 days afterward, we’ll open our hotel and the bar on top of the hotel, etc.” Rich said.
Rich said the majority of job openings will be posted near the start of the year, but there are already more than a dozen openings to view by visiting the casino resort’s website.
