Of the nearly 20,000 employees at the ten casinos and two resort casinos in Pennsylvania, 44 percent are female and 31 percent are racial minorities, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB).
The percentage of women employees is approximately 2 percent greater than the previous year, while the percentage of minority workers is about the same. At the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh 40 percent of its 1,774 workers are women, 26 percent are minorities.
The percentages of women and minority employees are lower in executive and management positions. Of the 2,585 management workers statewide, 38 percent are women, 21 percent are minorities.
The report also shows the board’s commitment to local hiring preference, according to Director of Diversity Mozelle Daniels. More than 89 percent of the 17,768 casino employees are Pennsylvania residents.
Daniels said the PGCB wants to ensure and promote diversity in all aspects of gaming.
“We have worked diligently over the past eight years to make sure that occurs by tracking all of the activities regarding hiring, recruitment, training, retention, promotions, job fairs, listening to what employees have to say and listening to what the diversity committees are talking about.”
According to Daniels, each casino in the state has a diversity committee that examines how hiring practices can be improved to better suit women and minorities. The committees meet monthly to reexamine a number of questions.
“How can we make life comfortable for the employees?” Daniels said. “How can we retain the employees we train? How can we promote so that we’ll have huge numbers of internal promotions? How can we ensure our employees are happy so that they’ll stay with us?”
From 2013 to 2014, more than $500 million was spent in non-construction and construction expenditures. In non-construction spending, 10 percent of the funds were allocated to minority and women business enterprises. Fifty-six percent of the money was spent within the state.
“They’re pumping money into the local economy and they are making sure that minorities and women are included in the process,” Daniels said.
Additionally, state casinos gave $8.7 million in charitable donations during the time period, a $2.2 million drop from last year’s amount.
