• Schenectady Ny Casino Opening
• Rivers Casino Employment
• Rivers Casino Schenectady Employment

Rivers Casino & Resort Schenectady is Now Open! New hours of operation are 6AM to 10PM Daily. Downtime will be used for intensive property-wide deep cleaning, in addition to the continuous sanitizing which will take place throughout each day. Mohawk Harbor consists of over 1 million square feet including 206 apartments, 50 condominiums, 15 townhouses, 2 hotels, 125,000 square feet of harbor-side retail/dining, 70,025 square feet of Class A Office space, and one of New York State’s 1st licensed casinos, Rivers Casino & Resort Schenectady. If you’re looking for the hottest gaming action in New York, Rivers Casino & Resort Schenectady is the place for you. We’ve got 1,150 of the newest, hottest machines! Table games more your style? We’ve got over 67 of them ranging from Blackjack to Craps. You can’t get a better gambling experience in New York or the Capital Region! In Part Four, Geoff Redick speaks with employees at Des Plaines' Rivers Casino about their jobs inside the gaming facility, and how Rivers trains its own workforce — both inside and outside the casino.

DES PLAINES, Ill. -- For communities that need jobs, casinos have them. Often, they have thousands of available jobs, and sometimes even have trouble filling the positions.

SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia, owned by Rush Street Gaming and a sister to Schenectady’s future casino, recently doubled its footprint, adding restaurants, a large event center, and dozens more slot machines and table games. The $164 million expansion opened in May and created more than 600 new jobs at the casino. SugarHouse is still trying to fill all the positions.

In Des Plaines, Illinois, Rivers Casino opened with 1,200 jobs in 2011 and has since ballooned to more than 1,500 workers, but are they good jobs, the kind that foster careers and personal growth?

Employees in Illinois say they are.

“I work 10 hours a day, and I enjoy every minute,” said Greg Harris, a sous chef in the casino’s production kitchen that supplies most of its restaurants. Harris is one of the casino’s prized success stories: he has grown from a low-level cook to a high-ranking assistant in the kitchen in only five years’ time.

“The Rush Street Gaming culture, I think is really team-oriented,” Harris said, noting that the casino stages family events and friendly competitions for its employees.

“We’re now on our 3rd general manager. They’re always approachable, and that open-door policy from the higher-ups always promotes that mindset from the ground up.”

Another original staff member, blackjack dealer Regis Lawrence, came to Rivers Casino without a job in 2010. He was immediately entered in the company’s free dealer training program, and helped open the casino in 2011.

“I’ve learned a new skill. I can take that with me wherever I go,” Lawrence said, noting he had never dealt card games before this job. “Whenever I decide to retire, now I have a skill that can get me a part-time job somewhere else.”

The casino’s former director of human resources, who was responsible for all the hiring, said both stories reflect Rivers Casino’s goal of cultivating its own employees and promoting from within.

“We’ve had some incredible success stories,” said Kate McMahon, who is now the vice-president of human resources for Schenectady’s Rivers Casino. “Internally, we offer programs for employees to advance. If we find the right candidate that we know we can train, then we offer those opportunities.'

The casino also focuses on employee training outside its own walls. As part of its required charitable giving, Rivers is in the midst of a $300,000 donation to the local Maine West High School. The money is being used renovate the Maine West culinary foods kitchen. The new facility, which is also being funded by school district taxpayers, will feature a food preparation lab and restaurant-style seating, so that culinary students may host meals and practice proper food presentation.

“We're training our kids to go into an industry where they're needed,” said the high school’s principal, Dr. Audrey Haugan. “And we have a lot of our kids go on to professional culinary schools, as well.'

Maine West does not keep statistics on how many students enter employment at Rivers Casino. Students are not eligible for most jobs in the casino because it is a 21-and-older facility, but kitchen workers may be as young as 18-years-old. The high school and casino are together exploring possibilities for internships, for students who are old enough to take part.

One knock against Rivers Casino and its ownership company has come from another employee community. In Pittsburgh, employees at the Rush Street Gaming property have been fighting for years to unionize their labor, and recently filed for a union election. The national union they want to join, called Unite Here, has been actively involved in Pittsburgh, but did not provide comment for this series.

In Des Plaines, employees signaled that there is little talk of organized labor.

Schenectady Ny Casino Opening

“It’s a conversation that sometimes needs to be had,” said Gregory Harris, “but at the same time, there are so many benefits working for this company that I don’t think it’s necessary to have a third party speak on our behalf.”

“Everything is phenomenal, as far as the leadership,” added Regis Lawrence. “They’re easily approachable.” Lawrence also gushed about the company’s healthcare, which he says switched to “one of the best health providers in the state” in 2014.

Rivers Casino Employment

“They didn’t have to do that, but they did,” Lawrence said.

Rivers Casino Schenectady Employment

In Part Five of “All In: A Future with Rivers Casino,” we head to Philadelphia for a look at Rush Street Gaming's newest property, and a glimpse at what Schenectady's casino could look like on the inside. Plus: is the future bright for New York's casinos, in an industry some say is shrinking? Look for more Friday on Time Warner Cable News.