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By J. Freedom du Lac | There was nothing unusual about the bet that led to Cara DeRosa's meltdown. ¶ It was a standard wager she'd paid out countless times during her first six weeks at Maryland Live Casino Dealer School, where she was taking a crash course in craps. But now all those odds that DeRosa had spent so many hours committing to memory were escaping her. So, too, was her composure. ¶ All around her were other anxious job-seekers competing for potentially transformative casino dealer gigs: An unemployed mother who hadn't received a paycheck since being laid off from Verizon Wireless 19 months earlier. A Giant pharmacy tech who hated his dead-end job. A Cheesecake Factory waitress who coveted the casino's excitement. ¶ More than 8,600 people applied to work in the new gambling pits at the Arundel Mills casino, but only 831 had been invited to attend the three-month dealer school. Two-thirds might be offered full-time jobs paying $45,000 to $55,000 a year. ¶ With the April 11 launch of live-action table games at Maryland Live just weeks away, some of the novice dealers were cracking under the pressure of performing - even in a mock casino with fake money. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
