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“Very rich, very welcoming, very warm,” St. Jean said.
The casinos’ official address is even 777 Hollywood Boulevard.
Columns of mesmerizing blue lights shined from floor to ceiling.
Casino officials explained the displays will be encased in
smoked glass. A Marilyn Monroe mural adorned another wall.
Other 21st-century technology has yet to be installed. What St.
Jean said “will really give the property some pop” is the
electronics-- $10 million dollars’ worth of audio and video,
from giant video boards to plasma-screen TV’s.
“There will be some Hollywood branding throughout,” said St.
Jean. “We have some studio relationships, so as there are new
movie releases, we'll have some billboards in the casino, you'll
see it carried out on the felt of the table games."
There will be 2,000 slot machines with the capacity to add 1,000
more if the demand is there. There also will be 60 table games,
including blackjack, roulette, and craps. The casino will offer
an additional 20 live poker tables, most of them in a separate
room.
"This will feel like a Vegas casino," said St. Jean.
But casino managers also emphasize there are entertainment
options for the entire family, including a sea food restaurant,
a steakhouse, a high-end buffet, and a burger joint on the
premises. There also will be live entertainment on stage seven
days each week.
30,000 people applied to work there. Only 1,200 will be hired,
90 percent of them local hires—and all of them non-smokers. It
will be a health-conscious casino, complete with an
employee exercise room downstairs. But those employees also get
a work-out from opening day forward: keeping an estimated 2.8
million annual visitors entertained in a casino that boasts
125,000 square feet of floor space.
“It’s a spectacular level of interest, so we’re able to be very
picky in whom we choose,” St. Jean admitted.
There have been three recent casino-related job fairs: one in
Toledo, a second in Bowling Green, and the latest one Monday at
Owens Community College. Auditions are being held for blackjack
and poker dealers, as well as craps and roulette table
operators. Once hired, casino managers will spend the next few
weeks training new employees.
Casino managers stated security on the premises will be
high-priority. Dozens of surveillance cameras will observe the
casino floor from an off-limits room in the basement. In
addition to security personnel keeping an eye on the cameras,
there will be floor security, as well as police investigators
from the state’s Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI).
The casinos in Toledo and Cleveland are expected to be the first
ones to open in Ohio. Gambling facilities in Columbus and
Cincinnati will follow months down the road. That presents an
opportunity for Toledo’s Hollywood Casino to attract serious
gamblers, as well as the curious from a larger region, at least
initially. Casino managers hope to learn a potential opening
date by the end of the month.
“I just think there’s a lot of due diligence that has to be done
and a lot of rules that have to be written,” said St. Jean of
the situation with the Ohio Control Commission. “We’re just
hoping it’s a matter of weeks and not a matter of months, as far
as the delay is concerned.”
Casino executives had hoped to open by April 1. Realistically,
that date could now be pushed back as far as June.
The casino and an adjacent parking garage have created more than
2,100 construction jobs in the community. One of those workers
is Derek Hoen, who was helping with some finish work on a
couple of elegant pillars. Hoen stated he can’t wait to return
to the finished casino with friends.
“I’ll be feeling very proud about all the work that we’ve done
and just being part of this big of a project,” he said,
emphasizing he’ll show off his handiwork. “Oh, definitely,
definitely-- I’ll point out things I’ve worked on and things I
was a part of. It’s going to be fun, going to be interesting.”
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