Lady Luck Casino opens for preview
Amanda Steen | Herald-Standard
Blaze Moore of Farmington will be an assistant shift supervisor of table game operations at Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin in Farmington. Moore has 22 years of experience, including working at casinos in Las Vegas, Nev.
Amanda Steen | Herald-Standard
Leigh Ford of Confluence (center) will be working at the blackjack table at Lady Luck Casino in Farmington when it opens Monday. Ford said this is her first job in a casino.
Lady Luck Casino, in Farmington features 600 slot machines, 28 table games, a casual dining restaurant and a lounge. The casino laid off 15 percent of its workforce Monday, Sept 9.
Amanda Steen | Herald-Standard
Shown above is one of the many table games at Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin, which will open Monday. A media tour of the facility was held on Thursday.
WHARTON TWP. — Hundreds of slot machines were lit up, and dealers dressed in bright red shirts were perched behind blackjack and poker tables inside the Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort on Thursday.
The scene was staged for the media as a preview to Monday’s planned grand opening of the flagship of the Isle of Capri Casinos’ Lady Luck casinos.
Practice runs for the dealers and the rest of the 500 employees, and about 500 invited guests, were scheduled for Thursday and Saturday nights.
If everything goes as planned during the practice nights, in which all gambling proceeds will be donated to charities, a grand opening ceremony will be held at 11:30 a.m. Monday. The doors will open at noon and then remain open 24 hours a day.
Lady Luck Nemacolin is the St. Louis, Mo.-based Isle of Capri’s 16th casino and the fifth to bear the Lady Luck name.
“The flagship of the Lady Luck brand,” is how general manager Rich Laudon described the new casino. “We’re very proud of how this turned out. It took a lot of work to get us here today.”
The casino has 600 slot machines, 28 gaming tables and two restaurants. The slot machines accept various denominations and gaming tables have different minimum bets.
In the high-limit room, a handful of blackjack tables have higher minimum bets.
Slot machines don’t dispense money to winners. Instead, the machines give tickets to winners who can redeem them for money at machines located near the cashier desk.
The casino is the second Category 3 or resort casino in the state and one of the few in the country that require some type of admission or access fee. Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia is the other Category 3 casino in the state. The state’s gaming law says Category 3 casinos are amenities of their resorts.
The restaurants are The Lone Wolf, a casual bar featuring entertainment and food, including take out and express service, and the more upscale Otis and Henry’s Bar and Grill, which is built around a huge brick fireplace.
Isle of Capri began looking for employees to run the operation by holding job fairs beginning in the spring. It’s expected to employ about 500 workers.
“The people that came in were enthused, educated and prepared,” Laudon said. “They were energized to start new careers.”
Lady Luck is in the building that originally housed Nemacolin’s Outdoor World sporting goods shop, which is now located in downtown Uniontown, and then the Wildside, a restaurant that featured arcade games. The building was enlarged and a two-story addition was added to accommodate the casino, which encompasses 35,000 square feet.
Kevin O’Toole, executive director of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, said Lady Luck Nemacolin is the state’s 12th casino. The state’s gaming law allows 15 casinos, including one more Category 3 casino.
Employees at all the casinos undergo training and criminal background investigations, and the gaming venues use the latest technology to detect and prevent cheating.
“Anyone who thinks they can cheat, they’re barking up the wrong tree,” O’Toole said.
He said the casinos generate $4 million a day, or $1.5 billion a year, in tax revenue.