I found this information on Google^***:

Casino Dealer Training Center
1108 S 8th St
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 339-5857

There is no website for this company and the phone number was voice mail that identified it as the school but offered no more information.

I asked a local friend who employs me for casino parties and he thinks they're legit but isn't sure. Are they legit? Do they offer job placement in AC rooms? Anyone know anything about them in any way?

I am pondering a career change to become a poker dealer and I would love it if a legit dealer's school was right in town so I could take classes without a commute.

I can be reached by PM if need be...

^{*** This information is public so I didn't think posting it would run afoul of forum rules. My apologies if this is the case. My posting it is not an advertisement or endorsement of this company.}

MOst dealers schools cant help too much with job placement, they just point u in the right direction (at least in NY and NJ). Your best bet, would be to get hired for one of the tournaments in AC first (Caesars circuit is in March), then be ready for "hiring" season in April May June.

I know very little about that market so I can't address that specifically. In general a school can help a decent bit with placement. They will often make arrangements with break in casinos to bring groups to audition. This isn't anything you couldn't do on your own, but a lot of places these days prefer to audition groups of dealers instead of just one at a time.

Our Christmas party was at a bar in a strip-mall that also contained a dealers' school.

Three of us, all poker dealers, stepped outside to the parking lot to help a girl bring in her baked goods. One of us motioned toward all the students who were standing outside for a smoke break, and laughed, "Who do they think is going to be hiring these days???"

Dont you have to go to these schools to get certified??

I thought this thread was going to be full of theories about Philadelphia legalizing poker. *sigh*

I am starting classes there today after work. The place is run by a guy named John Palumbo. Google shows some dude who worked for a Niagra Casino and another guy from Rhode Island who cased a few big tourneys but it's not an uncommon name (it's also the name of the guitarist from Baltimore's famed Crack The Sky).

This is the Google Street View of the place:



They have three signs so that much mean they're legit, right? The class will cost me $475 and I am paying $200 up front and will pay the rest as I go as per John. In cash, he says hesitantly. The class is supposed to be for 80 hours though John said that if my prior experience as a part-time self-trained dealer put me ahead of the game, I could finish it in less time. Unless being self-trained taught be bad habits that make it harder, but we'll see. He claims to have connections for getting auditions and even if I don't try and work in AC, I am hopeful Pennsylvania will have table games in a few years and I hope to be ready if need be (i.e. if the day job working in the music biz goes away).

I'll let people know how things go. Maybe it will help someone out down the road...

Best part about this place:

[ ] learning to deal the poker
[X] Pat's Steaks only 3 blocks away

This place looks totally legit. I am sure they will even have prop students. You can tell they are props, since you will not see them handing over their tuition in cash...

Best of luck man

If all else fails they can open the front garage door and do oil changes.

PS- the good news is the property taxes are paid up on the place.

I remember when the Borgata first opened, there was a dealer shortage in AC. Many of the dealers moved from the existing poker rooms to Borgata - which left many many new dealers. When I noticed many didn't even know how to play poker, I asked what their training consisted.

I was told by several floor people that a person would audition dealing. If they liked him/her, they were hired.

That's it.

Some places will just audition you, this is true. However even if that is the case, even if I do not need the assistance for job placement, I can definitely use the training so I can pass that audition - I needed to get out of bad habits I developed while self-training (thumb-cutting of checks for example) and learn actual casino procedures that were not really important to know when doing casino parties.

I like John, the instructor. He's in mid mid '70s and he balances the line between not taking any **** and being a nice guy at the same time. He is neither of the John Palumbo's that I Googled above but he has been teaching dealers in AC and in Philly for some time. I am pretty convinced that he knows what he is doing though the proof will be later on if some of the people he knows do indeed make an appearahnce in the classroom (mostly people who work at rooms in AC). I already feel like I am a better dealer than I was before I started taking the classes and that's important.

With poker coming to Delaware casinos any time now and the potential for table games in Pennsylvania getting stronger every day, I am glad that I will have some real training if a job market does open up in other areas. My day job is in the music industry which was not doing great even before the recession hit. I am 40 and I need options. This will hopefully give me a few. Plus I really like poker - playing and dealing.

So far, I feel it is money well-spent. We'll see how I feel a month and a year down the road.

Keep us updated man, and best of luck. It's not as easy as the haters in the forum would have you think. "omg wtf monkeys can do it lol god dealers are sux"

Hope ya make it.

Hey NYCNATIVE - i was just wondering the update on this post? I want to start dealer training soon, and I googled schools in Philly and came upon this. I, like you, have dealt a lot of private cash games in the LA area and tournaments out here, but wanted to become officially certified. I wanted to try to get into a Harrah's room hopefully, because I am moving to Chicago at the end of summer and would love to try to transfer to the Horsehoe in Hammond, IND. I know it is SUPER HARD (if not impossible)to get into a casino right now, but you never know. How is your search going..?