The major recruiting effort for Pittsburgh’s Rivers Casino begins in late March with a one-day career fair, where managers in charge of everything from food service to finance will set up booths and talk shop with potential employees.

Following that, the company will hold periodic job fairs – a mall booth with pamphlets, for example, to spread awareness of the new employer. Job postings and applications also are listed at thepittsburghcasino.com.

The majority of employees, about 800, will be hired in June and July. The casino is slated to open in August.

Showing up to work at the casino will mean navigating a detailed document test from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, which must license each employee.

The casino’s management advises applicants to allow two to six weeks for a license, though the state board’s annual report for 2008 estimates it takes from five to eight days on average.

Randy Lheureau has a database with nearly 900 names, and his goal is to contact each one to ask if they are still interested in working at the casino. Many say yes, he said.

Lheureau is a work force development specialist with the Northside Leadership Conference who has been collecting those hundreds of names over the course of a year and a half, during 24 workshops in community centers and churches and by word of mouth.

His mission is to inform, not promote casino work. But Lheureau expects the new facility can bring a much-needed employment boost to the region. The average salary across all positions will be in the mid-USD 30,000 range, according to Rivers president and CEO Ed Fasulo.

“From my understanding, casinos are organizations where a person can get a foot in the door and really build a career there,” Lheureau said.