CASINO EMPLOYMENT

The gaming industry is a driving force in the U.S. economy, creating more than 1 million jobs nationwide and offering some of the most dynamic and rewarding professional opportunities available today. It is a fast-paced and exciting industry, offering a multi-faceted corporate environment with extremely diverse career possibilities ranging from architecture and accounting to hotel management, computer science and information technology.

In its 1999 final report, the National Gambling Impact Study Commission acknowledged the economic benefits provided by casinos in communities nationwide: “...Legalized gambling has unquestionably had certain positive economic effects in some of the communities in which it has been introduced. Hundreds of employees in several cities enthusiastically described to the Commission the new and better jobs they had obtained with the advent of casinos...”

The following are some statistics concerning employment in the commercial casino segment of the gaming industry:

• In 2008, the commercial casino industry employed more than 375,000 people: more direct employees than the U.S. automobile industry, software manufacturers or wireless phone carriers.
• During the past two decades, the casino work force has increased nearly 80 percent, from 198,657 employees in 1990 to 357,314 in 2008.
• Casino employees earned $14.1 billion in wages (including tips and benefits) in 2008, more than $3.1 billion more than in 2000. 

Gaming industry employment has brought significant benefits to employees beyond wages, including health insurance, job skills and training, and access to day care, according to the 1997 Gaming Industry Employee Impact Survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The same survey found that gaming industry employment also benefited local economies by lowering public assistance payouts, increasing sales of homes, cars and major appliances, and increasing charitable giving and volunteerism.

A 2007 white paper, “A Survey of Attitudes of Casino Industry Employees,” found that:

• More than 85 percent of the nation’s gaming employees find their job satisfying.
• Solid majorities of survey respondents’ think that their benefits (63 percent), pay (62 percent), and opportunities for advancement (57 percent) are better in their current positions than in past jobs.
• More than two-thirds of employees say they have access to better healthcare since they began working in the casino gaming industry, including demographic groups who are often underinsured in other workforce sectors.  
• Casino employees take pride in their jobs, as well as the gaming industry, and 83 percent of those surveyed said they would strongly recommend it to others.
• Nearly half of the employees surveyed said they will definitely or probably be working in the casino gaming industry for the next 10 years.
• The median tenure within the casino gaming industry is seven years. Fully 42 percent of employees have worked in the industry for more than 10 years, and 30 percent have been with the same company for more than a decade.

The gaming industry has proven to be among the trendsetters in diversity hiring and procurement practices. In 2000, the AGA Diversity Task Force teamed with PricewaterhouseCoopers to develop the Gaming Industry Diversity Snapshot , featuring aggregated gaming industry employment statistics by job category, race and gender. The study was subsequently updated in 2003 and again in 2007. The study found that in 2007 casinos employed a greater percentage of Black, Hispanic and Asian workers than the U.S. workforce. Overall, participating casinos employed more minorities than the national U.S. workforce by 20.6 percent.