I see a casino shop now requires a certification.

I see the certification place requires 3 core certifications before you can do the casino certification.

Do y’all pay for these? Do you ever ask the MSC to cover some costs? I’d say I’m not as experienced as most of you. I’ve done fewer than 1000 shops, and have never done a hotel or casino shop.

I was thinking about doing it and treating a family member to a fun couple days.

Most of the certifications by MS companies for their jobs are free. What MS company are you referring to? DO NOT name the client if you name the MS company.

@walesmaven wrote:

Most of the certifications by MS companies for their jobs are free. What MS company are you referring to? DO NOT name the client if you name the MS company.

The big company allowed to work in Nevada was advertising a California casino but wanted “A National Casino Certification is a client requirement for completing this project.”

I’m new so I looked up the MSPA and saw they had something like this. The price is low enough. Makes sense since they’re shelling out $1320 reimbursement AND $225 shop fee.

It’s funny that company has expensive stuff like that, gyms, and crummy pizza. So I’d like to see if I can handle a more deluxe job.

I decided to go for it. I’ll update after the courses. So far a pain just to get into the Silver course.

It probably won't be as fun as you think it will be.
The reimbursement is usually hotel room, meals, tips and gambling losses. The gambling losses was their gambling profit they are just paying you back. The hotel room is the same as if they had a vacancy (unless they have a 100% occupancy rate year round) and the meal only costs them 25 to 33% of the meal reimbursement. When you divide the fee by the number of hours you are either traveling, observing or writing the report you will be shocked. $225 sounds like a lot but it's not.
I still do them and like them. My favorite is a local casino where the normal shop is broken into pieces among 3 or 4 shoppers.

UPDATE:

MSPA Certifications

Membership: $35 annual
Core classes on writing and ethics: $60
Casino class: $35

The courses are outrageously overpriced. These are very generalized. One class contains several sections on the founders of the MSPA that really serve no purpose to the course (that costs you money). They're all extremely easy. They're very brief. The writing course has some useful tips, but should be free with your membership. Frankly, all the courses should be free with a membership.

I would say the sort of person who conducts a lot of shops would have zero use for these (as they do not inform seasoned shoppers). There is little new information (so far).

I would say that the sort of person who is new would ALSO have zero use for these (as they would not need to have any certifications to conduct a small number of simple shops to learn the business).

I will probably take this as a lesson to follow one's instincts (I previously found no use for these memberships, etc.).

I will still apply for the casino shop and hopefully these were the required courses.

Other information:

The site is a bit wonky, and the courses are not easy to access. The site says you WILL NOT be emailed links to the courses. IN FACT, the ONLY successful way to access them seems to be LINKS that they EMAIL you. Otherwise you go in loops clicking links which take you to pages which ask that you log in, which take you back to the pages that ask you to click on courses, which takes you back to the same log in page. A vicious circle. INSTEAD, you should wait for the emails. One email was within an hour. Another took about 8 hours. Another took about 30 minutes. So there was no rhyme or reason to when you could buy and then access a course except UPON RECEIVING the email they said you would not get.

I have not looked at what other benefits come with the annual membership -perhaps someone could tell me? Is it the networking at conferences? Is it the discounts? Is it being on a master shopper list somewhere?

LASTLY:

I do not appeal to authority, but merely speak from experience and want to help other people in my situation. I am a teacher with a Master's degree. This means I have jumped through all manner of hoops in my professional career. I have taken many tests. I have written many papers. Very few courses, and very few professors of knowledge actually help people IMPROVE their writing. This was no exception. There was sound information, but you could likely find it on your own. I would say run yourself through some COYLE shops to improve your writing. They'll let you know you haven't hit the mark! The ethics course was unfortunately particularly inadequate. The casino course was poorly prepared, and the instructions I have read from various MSCs provide more relevant information that that one would need to conduct their shops.

CONCLUSION:

RUN AWAY!

I'll update if I am approved and conduct a casino shop -unless you think I should make a thread for people considering conducting a casino shop?