Casinos could be a major job creator for the Island, according to Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission executive director Richard Schuetz.

Speaking about the introduction of casinos in a wide-reaching interview with The Royal Gazette, Mr Schuetz said that because of their labour-heavy nature, a casino industry in Bermuda could create hundreds of jobs.

“I have to be extraordinarily careful here, because I don’t want to give anyone false expectations. I would like to think there could be a thousand jobs once it’s fully blown out, sometime down the road, but I could be wrong,” he said.

“This is an inexact science but I don’t think that’s ridiculous.

“You have to remember that in most environments casinos are 24/7. That really extends the full-time equivalency of employees.

“And there is a whole variety of jobs. You may say you want to be a dealer, but there’s got to be someone to carry the chips. There’s got to be a pit assistance keeping tracks on the games.

“There’s going to be surveillance, generally food and beverage. Slot technicians. It’s amazing the number of jobs. Casinos are labour-intensive products, so they need a lot of bodies.”

In the case of Singapore, he noted that the casino industry had provided a major boon to the economy and created thousands of jobs.

“If you go from 2009 when there were no casinos, there was also a recession, but there was a 50 per cent increase in tourism by 2012 when casinos had been open for two years,” he said.

“Do I anticipate that here? Probably not, but the tourism increase in Singapore meant 22,000 direct jobs and 40,000 related jobs.

He also said that the vast majority of positions in casinos could be filled by trained Bermudians.

“The casino product is a very labour-intensive beast, and it’s a very disperse industry,” he said. “I don’t see any reason why with effective training programmes that we can’t establish a goal — and maybe Bermudians won’t be interested in working in a casino — but I believe that we would have no problem with 90 per cent plus of the employees being Bermudian.

“In Mississippi or New Jersey early on they had to train a labour force and we can do that.

“There are companies that do that.”

Questioned about training initiatives, Mr Schuetz said an exact model has yet to be determined, but discussions had already begun about how such programmes would be implemented in Bermuda.

“There are a number of different models,” he said.

“They can be privatised — someone quits his job and starts a training school. Another model that’s used is when the state develops their own vocational programmes.

“I have sat down with the manpower people here in Government, I have sat down with the president of Bermuda College, and we have begun to now brainstorm this entire issue.

“We think that it may be possible in the fee process to make sure that the operators have a commitment to participate in training programmes that involve our public institutions.

“That’s not cast in stone — these are my ideas.

“One of the most important aspects of the request for proposals, when they go out, is asking about their experience opening casinos in areas where there are no casinos, because that’s going to be an important part of deciding who we do business with.”