Colleges to offer degrees in gambling, casino management

As some states have turned to casinos for gambling revenues, public colleges throughout the United State are increasingly offering courses and majors on casinos and gambling. As the gaming industry is booming, getting a degree in casino gambling is becoming a career option for an increasing number of students, mostly through Indian tribes, www.miami.com reported. This year has seen an increase in the number of people who chose to become college educated blackjack dealers, casino security experts, restaurant and entertainment operators and gaming managers. Over the past five years, gaming courses and majors have cropped up at colleges including San Diego State University, Michigan State University, Tulane University's University College in New Orleans, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. They join the pioneering University of Nevada at Las Vegas and Reno, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. In New York's Catskill Mountains, Sullivan County Community College added a casino concentration in its club management degree. There are several proposed Indian casinos in the former Borscht Belt of upstate New York, though none has gotten final regulatory approval. Courses at such schools include the study of gambling laws, operating on sovereign Indian land, and biometrics and "facial recognition" for casino security. Some students learn to be pit bosses, dealers and slot machine repairers. "I spent 25 years in the business and I always wanted to bring education to the gaming industry," said Peter LaMacchia, director of the six-year-old casino studies at the State University of New York's Morrisville State College. "When I started, the business was about who you know, rather than what you knew." But not everyone wants to let this trend ride: "It's disgusting," said state Sen. Frank Padavan, a New York City Republican and vocal gambling opponent. "I think it's inappropriate for the state to become a vehicle by which people are in increasing numbers addicted... To have that policy reinforced through a curriculum in a public university is reprehensible." Richard Marksbury, dean of Tulane University's University College, which offers an associate's degree in casino studies said: "I think anyone who is doing it right now is in a pioneering effort and, anytime you're in a pioneering effort, respect isn't the first thing you're going to get.". The National Council on Problem Gambling notes that campus gambling isn't new: 4.5 million of the nation's 15.3 million college students will gamble on sports this year, it calculated.