BSI gives sneak peek at training facility

For over a month now, Best Sunshine International, Ltd. has been training their personnel for the upcoming opening of their live training casino at the ground floor of T Galleria.

No date has been definitely confirmed yet for the soft opening, but it seems that July 26 has been eyed upon.

Best Sunshine International’s dealers and other casino personnel are being trained for over a month now for the upcoming soft opening of their live training casino. Training manager Mike Shure briefs them at their facility in Garapan. (Frauleine S. Villanueva)

Members of the media were invited to check out their training facility at the Bank of Guam building in Garapan yesterday.

Of the 46 employees in training, about 29 are dealers.

According to pit manager Isha King, many came from the U.S. mainland’s casino capitals such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Training manager Mike Shure, who has been in the casino business for 20 years, said the dealers-in-training are “good.”

“They’re just naturals,” Shure said. “They really want to be dealers.”

So far, Shure said, he has lost only three students.

King, who worked for Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino for 13 years, said that one of the challenges for her was to teach the dealers Baccarat with a 5-percent commission.

“It’s not easy for new dealers to do 5 percent,” she said.

She started training with the dealers just last week.

King said that math skills, attitude, and personality are some of the criteria needed to be successful dealers.

Casino supervisors and managers as well as surveillance personnel are also being trained.

“They need to know the game too,” King said.

Right now, Shure said they are focusing on training U.S. citizens and green card holders, especially those who live on island.

“My requirements for me to train you [is you] need to be an islander. I like to train people who live here,” Shure said.

“Right now that’s my directive. More islanders should get involved,” he added.

King echoed the same.

“For now we don’t have CW-1s,” she said, adding that CWs are “not approved yet.” CW1 employees are foreign workers that are petitioned to work in the Commonwealth.

The training facility started last June 15 and the number of trainees continue to increase, according to Shure.

He said that they will be training another batch of dealers soon after the first group begins working at the live training casino.

Asked if the dealers are ready for the soft opening, Shure said “You’re never ready as you want to be. But I think they are ready.”

He said they will be operating for 12 hours for the first week or so but by August they are looking at staying open for 24 hours.

Last week, Commonwealth Casino Commission executive director Edward Deleon Guerrero said that BSI is looking to open the casino “this month.”

The commission is set to have a meeting this Friday but it is not clear if BSI’s opening is on the agenda.

BSI earlier said that the opening date for the casino is a “moving target.”