Miami Herald
Posted on Mon, Aug. 25, 2008
Hollywood school bets on slot repair classes
BY NIRVI SHAH
With thousands of slot machines already blinking and beeping in Broward and Miami-Dade and more on the way, an adult school in Hollywood has become the first to offer a state-approved course in one-arm bandit repair work.
''We try to stay really relevant to what industry's needs are . . . and this is such a new industry down here,'' said Kim Curry, community and business liaison for Sheridan Technical Center, run by the Broward school district.

And the demand for graduates will likely be high. Broward already has five casinos, Miami-Dade has one, plus several other facilities are approved to have slots.

''These are not minimum wage jobs,'' said Gary Bitner, spokesman for the Seminole Indians. Graduates could make as much as $18 an hour repairing slots.

The school's nine-week inaugural class has 25 students, who paid $651 in tuition. The students include a used car salesmen, race horse groomers and waiters. The next session starts in October. Students must be at least 21 and have clean criminal records.

Besides mastering the mechanics of slot machines, Sheridan students will learn about the laws that govern gaming in Florida, and expand their customer service skills. Those who graduate receive a certificate showing they completed the course, which they can present when applying for jobs.

At casinos owned by the Seminoles, thousands of slot machines are already in play, and the tribe plans to install 15,000 in all, Bitner said.

''They come with amazing bells and whistles: wheels that spin for jackpots, some that pop balls in the air like popcorn,'' he said. ``All of those things need maintaining.''

Until now, most local casinos have trained slot techs on the job, with inexperienced workers shadowing seasoned techs. But that kind of training is limited, said Mike DeLuca, slot director at Mardi Gras Gaming in Hallandale Beach.

In class, the Sheridan students will work with real slots donated by casinos.

''They can create an error and then make that tech fix it,'' he said. ``Out in the real casino, you can't create problems. When you have problems you lose money. You don't want this one person to sit at a slot machine fixing it for five hours.''

Sheridan graduates will also be able to get jobs outside of South Florida, on cruise ships, for example, and work on more than just slots, said Thomas Corday, who teaches the new classes along with Steve Chairnoff.

Many students said they are looking for new careers or better-paying jobs.

Jim Rivera spent several months working in the kitchen of a Seminole casino and recently started shadowing some of the slot techs there. Now he comes straight from his 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. shift to class at 7 a.m.

''It's a growing field,'' said Rivera, 50.

Creating Sheridan's program took about 18 months and required legislative approval. The school had to obtain a gaming license and authorization to own the slots used in the class. ''You're just not allowed to walk around with a slot machine,'' Curry said.

Sheridan's course is breaking ground in the country's Southern region. A community college in Atlantic City, N.J., offers a similar program, as do schools in Colorado and Nevada, but Curry said they are otherwise scarce.

The first Vegas-style slots in South Florida arrived at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach in 2006, and that facility now has 825 machines, said Mike Couch, vice president of gaming.

''My experience here has been that we've been understaffed for quite a while. The talent pool isn't there,'' Couch said. ``That's where the school would be beneficial.''

Slots were approved in 2005 with the promise of raising money for education, although concerns remain about how much they will actually yield. Over the last year, slots raised $122 million for the state's education trust fund. The state estimates those revenues will grow to nearly $300 million by 2012.

The $60 billion gaming industry has not been immune to the economic downturn, butBill Eadington, director of the Institute for Gambling and Commercial Gaming at University of Nevada, said in Florida, where slots are relatively new, demand for employees will likely remain strong despite the overall slump. So investing in anything that complements the industry makes sense, he said.

Miami Herald staff writers Breanne Gilpatrick and Hannah Sampson contributed to this report.
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