Nearly 1,000 aspiring employees attended Wednesday's Cascades Casino job fair at the John D. Bradley Centre, in Chatham.
The job fair in Chatham netted applicants as far as Windsor and also attracted roughly 1,000 applications online. It was an overwhelming turnout for future gateways casino staff, said director of communications, Rob Mitchell. People were at the door at 9 a.m. and a crowd remained until the fair ended at 7 p.m.
The new casino will bring 200 jobs to Chatham-Kent, one hundred of which will be moved from the existing Gateway Casinos Dresden location.
The hiring spree is also being viewed as an opportunity for residents to bring down Chatham-Kent's unemployment rate. The latest numbers show the municipality is up to a seven per cent unemployment rate. That is the highest it has been since 2017, but a far cry from 2010 when the rate touched roughly 14 per cent.
The job fair was seeking to fill a wide range of positions from card-dealers and information technology (I.T.) personnel.
"We span the spectrum from everything from security to accounting, slot technicians... the whole gamut," said Mitchell.
Workers can expect to be put to work soon as the building of the new site is nearly complete and a soft launch will occur in the near future with a gala to follow.
The current location in Dresden has remained open while the new casino is being built and there is growing anticipation for a new one, said Mitchell.
"The excitement is not just the prospect of gaming and live entertainment," he said. "Our facilities are not restricted to 19 years of age and older."
The new $36 million building on Richmond Street, in Chatham, will include some areas without an age restriction. This includes a section dedicated to watching pay-per-view sports. The gambling areas, however, and any spot where alcohol is served will be age-restricted.