From a spinning roulette wheel to felt-covered blackjack tables and official chips and playing cards, an entertainment gambling lab at UW-Stout is designed to teach students about managing and operating a casino.

The lab, in the home economics building, is part of the hospitality and tourism department. The university offers a certificate program in gaming management and a minor in gaming entertainment management.

“This is all authentic,” Sharon Giroux, professor of hospitality and tourism and the gaming management adviser, said while standing in the lab as students dealt blackjack around the room.

“We’re not here to teach the students to gamble. They are going into management-level positions at casinos. They will be ready to go to work once they finish.”

The lab is decorated to mimic a real casino, with low lighting, mirrors and soft colors. It has seven gambling tables, two of which came from Treasure Island Resort and Casino outside Welch, Minn.

Students are taught the etiquette of operating the tables, including proper shuffling and how to place cards when dealing blackjack. Dealers never are supposed to turn their backs on players and must use proper techniques so cameras can see chip payouts.

“They learn the correct techniques so when they are supervisors they will know if something is wrong,” Giroux said.

Classes include management, casino operations, casino tourism, including the economics of how casinos have helped lift people out of poverty, and the psychological issues of gambling, including addiction.

The lab, which opened in fall 2007, is a response to a need for employees in the entertainment industry, Giroux said, noting most casinos are becoming resorts with golf courses and other recreational activities.

“Sixty percent of the money spent in casinos is on sports entertainment, foods, shows - anything but the casinos,” Giroux said. “It is entertainment, which fits into hospitality and tourism.”

With about 570 casinos across the country, there are opportunities for graduates to find work, she said.

The commercial gambling industry provides more then 350,000 jobs in the U.S., with wages and benefits totaling $11 billion. An estimated 400,000 additional jobs are supported by casino industry spending, according to americangaming.org.

Taylor Kwas, a 20-year-old junior business administration major from Menasha, is minoring in gaming entertainment management.

“I had never visited a casino, and my freshman year I went to Treasure Island Casino with a friend. It was one of the coolest experiences,” Kwas said, noting he loved the lights and watching people enjoy themselves. “The atmosphere is something I want to work in.”

Being in the lab prepares him to work at a casino, he said. “The tinted glass gives us the feel, and it’s a real table we are practicing at.”

Giroux requires students to dress in white shirts and leave soda and backpacks outside the lab, just as if they were working there. They must count their tills before starting and count out when they end.

“It is real-world knowledge that we are taught - how to work and act at a casino,” Kwas said.

Recently Kwas dealt blackjack to several other students in the class. “Way to start,” he said as he laid down an ace.

“I see a 20, another 20 and a 14,” he added, as he announced the number in each player’s hand and laid down another card.

Announcing the cards is part of the etiquette students learn.

Students also have to keep track of their tips and the payouts in the till at their table.

At another table students were learning to play craps. They were told about the rules of the payout and what each roll of the dice meant.

Carey Cappuccio, 20, a junior hospitality and tourism major from La Crosse who is minoring in gaming entertainment management, said she went to Las Vegas a couple of years ago and enjoyed it.

“There are not a lot of women in gaming management, so I thought there would be more opportunities for work,” she said. “I am learning a lot. I had never played roulette before. I’d like to work in Vegas, and I hope this will make me ready for that.”

UW-Stout is just starting surveys of casino employers to see if there is support and a need for a four-year degree in gaming entertainment management. Such a degree is not offered now in the state.

The degree would mix with event and convention planning as well as golf management, another major at Stout, Giroux said.