Casino course newest offering

MORRISVILLE, N.Y.>> “Gaming goes so much beyond gambling.”

This was the message from Morrisville State Casino Management Instructor Wayne Pater during a careers in casino resorts forum hosted in the pressbox of the Morrisville State Football Stadium on Thursday.

A handful of students interested in potential careers in the hospitality industry attended the forum, meeting with professionals in the field and learning more about the opportunities afforded Mustang students.

The forum precedes the roll out of the School of Business and Hospitality slated for the Fall of 2017. Currently, Morrisville State does not have a full-fledged hospitality school. Instead, degree programs related to hospitality full under the umbrella of the School of Agriculture, Sustainability, Business and Entrepreneurship.

When Morrisville State reconvenes this coming Fall 2017, a new School of Business and Hospitality will “provide more focus for students” interested in pursuing future careers in the industry, said current Dean of General Studies and future Dean of the School of Business and Hospitality Jeannette Evans.

“It signifies growth,” Evans said of the transition. “There are a lot of opportunities out there for traditional and non-traditional programs.”

“Casino management is just a part of the larger hospitality focus,” she said, adding that travel tourism and criminal justice also make up the hospitality collective.

Currently, Morrisville State offers associate degree programs in Travel and Tourism Hospitality Management and Gaming and Casino Management, and a Bachelor’s of Technology Degree in Criminal Justice and an Associate’s Degree in Criminal Justice.

Professor of Criminal Justice Danielle Balstra says students interested in pursuing a career in private security have an op- portunity to intern at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in order to gather first-hand experience in the private sector.

“We have a really good working relationship with the Oneida Indian Nation Police and Casino security. The Casino has worked very well with us in the past,” Balstra said.

The gaming and hospitality industry also offers a number of opportunities in the food industry, which is why Hospitality Chair Kerry Beadle, who also serves as the executive chef at the Copper Turret, was on hand to touch on the number of opportunities gaming sets up in the food industry.

The forum also welcomed Louis Cavallero, a pit manager at the Yellowbrick Road Casino.

A veteran of gaming in casinos since 1993, Cavallerno discussed how to enroll in dealer school through the Turning Stone website, detailing a process that includes an interview, drug testing, and live audition following the completion of a six week evening class course.

From there, dealers can work their way up from part-time to full-time, with the option of taking more training for different games such as craps and roulette.

“We train you in all the novelty games,” the Yellowbrick Road pit manager said. “Themore games you’ve trained in the better shot you have at promotion to floor supervisor and then pit manager.”

Like the others who spoke at the forum, Cavallerno believes the hospitality industry can only grow.

“In this day in age, it’s worldwide,” he said of gaming. “Opportunities are endless. Career opportunities are endless.”