The glamour of the gambling industry has drawn thousands of applicants for the roughly 4,000 jobs at the soon-to-open MGM National Harbor casino resort.
The company is wrapping up a major recruiting effort this month and putting the final touches on the casino grounds in anticipation of the Dec. 8 grand opening.
The $1.4billion resort, on the banks of the Potomac River in Prince George’s County, will bring more than a new entertainment venue to the Washington area, regional leaders say. It also will add a round-the-clock industry that could boost economic growth through middle-class jobs.
“There’s no real 24-hour industry in Washington,” said James C. Dinegar, president and chief executive of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. “When this is open and operating, it is going to need cashiers, dealers, waitresses and waiters, and bartenders at all the shifts. It is a different world in casinos.
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“There is a certain cachet associated with MGM,” Dinegar said in an interview last month. “There is a desire for people to work there.”
MGM said it had hired or offered jobs to 3,800 people as of this week. Also, the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency has issued about 1,500 casino-related licenses for the resort. And the employment center at the former Thomas Addison Elementary School on Oxon Hill Road was overflowing with job candidates this week.
The new resort, with its distant views of monumental Washington, will feature a 24-story hotel with luxury suites, a day spa, a 3,000-seat concert hall and restaurants featuring such culinary headliners as José Andrés, Marcus Samuelsson, and brothers Bryan and Michael Voltaggio. The 125,000-square-foot casino floor will have 3,600 slot machines and 140 gambling tables.
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Km Ansary, who walked out of the employment center Tuesday with a new employee ID and a Nov.21 orientation date, said he decided two years ago that he would apply for a job at the casino.
“MGM is big in the industry. It is the best,” said Ansary, who worked two years as a table games dealer at Maryland Live in Anne Arundel County. He also moved from Ellicott City to Alexandria this week to live closer to his new job. “It is a good opportunity. They take care of their employees.”
This week, other new employees were also picking up their ID badges and uniforms at the job center, just a half-mile from the resort. Some were interviewing, while others were there for training. And some were there just to check out the available opportunities.
Oxon Hill resident Beth Johnson said she had driven by the shiny new MGM tower, saw the 18-foot lion statue that arrived last week and thought about getting a part-time job. “It’s a nice place. I am sure they are hiring,” the recently retired government employee said as she entered the work center. She discovered that she needed to fill out an online application to begin the process.
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Logan Gaskill, MGM National Harbor’s vice president of human resources, said there are still openings in a variety of areas. According to the company, the average annual full-time wage is about $60,000, and there are more than 100 job classifications in the casino, food and beverage and hotel operations.
As the opening date nears, Gaskill said the company also is on track to meet local hiring goals, although the company declined to say how many of the offers have gone to Prince George’s residents. As part of a community-benefits agreement with the county, MGM has agreed to do its best to ensure that 40percent of its workforce is from the county when the casino opens. That is supposed to increase incrementally, over five years, to 50percent.
Under that same deal, MGM is required to provide health insurance to its employees. The company, which was endorsed by several unions before receiving the state’s sixth and final casino license, says its wages and benefits packages are competitive with other casinos and hospitality jobs in the region.
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Prince George’s County Council member Obie Patterson (D), who represents the area where the casino is located, said that MGM has met the local hiring and contracting goals during the construction phase and that he expects it will do so with the hiring for permanent jobs.
“I was told the recruitment efforts were going extremely well,” Patterson said. “A lot of people are applying.”
Although MGM’s hiring effort is praised by county and local leaders, it also means losses for other casinos, including Maryland Live, where some workers have quit to take jobs at MGM.
MGM officials say county residents who went through a dealer school at Prince George’s Community College were given opportunities to apply and audition for jobs. But many of the new hires come with experience from other properties.
Rob Norton, president of Maryland Live Casino & Hotel, said in a statement that defection is softer than anticipated but added that the family-run company expects that it “may lose some Team Members who happen to live closer to the other casino; however, as we have seen in the past, many will look to return as there is a big difference between working for a family-run business like ours and being a number in a big corporation. We take pride in our family values and competitive spirit.”
Maryland Live, which is the closest of the state’s casinos to Prince George’s and attracts significant business from MGM’s “prime feeder markets in Virginia,” is likely to see the most impact from MGM National Harbor. According to a 2013 study, Maryland Live could see its revenue drop 16percent by 2019 because of competition from the new casino. Maryland Live, however, will remain the state’s largest casino when MGM opens. And as it undergoes a multimillion-dollar expansion, it also is boosting its recruiting effort, officials say.
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Hui Li, of Ellicott City, said she was happy working at Maryland Live but was leaving her job there this week to start at MGM next week. With eight years of experience as a table games dealer, she said she was excited to work in a new building that promises Las Vegas-style gambling and thousands of daily visitors from the capital region and beyond.
“I’m taking a chance,” she said just before picking up her new uniform. “It’s beautiful. It’s big, it’s huge. That’s why.”
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