While Coast casinos push for gaming classes, and lawmakers hold firm on their resolve to deny them, business leaders debate about what can be done to bring the two parties together. I am very much in favor of being able to teach gaming-related courses, so long as they do not have anything to do with teaching people to gamble. We need to be clear on that, said Dr. Olon Ray, executive director of the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges.
Gaming is a major employment source.
The state needs to be involved in the training picture just as we would for any other business. We are certainly in a position to be very helpful in training people how to do gaming-specific professional programs. Almost 35,000 jobs in the state are casino-related, said state economist Phil Pepper. These jobs, their associated salaries and related activities of the casinos, generate additional jobs and tax revenues in the state, Pepper said. It is estimated that the 35,000 gaming jobs in the state create about 15,000 jobs elsewhere in the state through the multiplier effect.