Women are underrepresented in many industries, but, as data from Catalyst shows, the tide is turning. For example, the number of women working in the US construction industry increased by 7% between 2020 and 2022. Similarly, the number of women in transportation and warehousing jobs rose by 15% over the same period. Another industry where women are gaining more status is gambling.
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More Roles in Gambling
There have always been women in the gambling industry. However, the industry has evolved since the advent of online gambling in the late nineties. This has created more opportunities across the board, which, in turn, has allowed women to take on different roles. The gaming floor is one part of the gambling industry where women have always had a presence.
Alongside male colleagues, women have been serving drinks, cashing chips, and shuffling cards. These are roles women still have today, even in a time when online gaming has become the default form of entertainment. Indeed, if you log into an online casino and scroll through a list of live dealer games, such as Crazy Time, you'll see that women host the action. Men do, too; it's not a role reserved exclusively for women.
A New Outlook for Women in Entertainment
However, the TV-show nature of these games lends itself to charismatic and, dare we say it, attractive women. That's not a criticism. The entertainment industry has a natural bias towards good-looking people. But if we get beyond that, the point here is that women are firmly established in this part of the gambling industry. It's not a surprise to see women working on casino gaming floors.
However, women have moved beyond the gaming floor over the last two decades and taken on executive roles. For example, women now sit at many of the industry’s top tables. Jette Nygaard-Andersen was formerly in charge of Entain, one of the world’s largest online gambling operators. Denis Coates is another influential CEO within the industry. Then there are women such as Anna Sainsbury, Erika Nardini, and Amy Howe, all of whom have been on the board of gambling’s biggest companies.
We can also look at the poker sector and pick out dozens of successful women. From Liv Boeree and Vannessa Selbst to Kristen Bicknell, many of poker's most successful and prominent players are women. This goes against the age-old stereotype that poker is a man's game and that gambling is a male-dominated pastime. There are still areas of the gambling industry where women aren't as well represented.
The All-In Diversity Project’s annual All-Index report 2022/2023 found that women are well represented on gaming floors and boardrooms but underrepresented in mid-level management roles. The report looked at 32 organisations and found that, of the 80,000 employees recorded, 39% were female. That’s down 11% compared to previous years.
This shift is down to various factors, including the rise of sports betting, but the notable point is that fewer women are working in mid-level management roles. Despite this, the role of women in gambling has changed in a positive way. Women are still a firm fixture on gaming floors in the physical and digital worlds, but they've also found space in other parts of the gambling industry, which can only be a good thing.