The American Gaming Association (AGA) released new research providing an in-depth examination of diversity in the gaming industry workforce. The findings show that the gaming industry is more diverse than national and hospitality industry benchmarks and boasts a diverse executive pipeline, while identifying opportunities on gender representation.
“Consumers, policymakers and investors are raising their expectations for all businesses on how they contribute to society beyond the bottom line,” said AGA President and CEO Bill Miller. “Encompassing data from across commercial, tribal and manufacturing gaming verticals, the survey both highlights our industry’s leadership on diversity while presenting areas for continued progress.”
The study’s findings show tangible results of the industry’s broad reach and commitment to representing local communities:
- More than 6 in 10 (61 percent) of gaming industry employees are minorities, compared to 52 percent of the broader hospitality industry and 42 percent of the total U.S. workforce.
- 23 percent of gaming employees are Hispanic and 19 percent are Black—both higher than the national workforce and in line with the hospitality industry.
- 60 percent of operator employees are minorities, up nearly 20 percent from 2011 and higher than the hospitality sector and national workforces overall.
- 45 percent of gaming manufacturer employees are minorities, compared to 38 percent of the broader electronic manufacturing workforce.
Importantly, across job levels, gaming’s leadership pipeline is significantly more diverse than national averages at the first/mid-level manager and professional levels: 45 percent of first/mid-level managers are minorities while 43 percent of professionals are minorities, both 10 to 12 points above national and hospitality benchmarks.
Gender diversity presents an opportunity for the industry. Gaming’s workforce is 48 percent female, in line with the national workforce, but representation drops off at more senior level job classifications.
“As today’s report shows, our industry has made impactful strides toward becoming more diverse, but there is more work to do,” added Miller. “The AGA will use this research to engage our membership on how we can collectively advance DEI in gaming in the months and years to come.”
The benchmarking report comes a year after the AGA identified core pillars of ESG in gaming: advancing sustainability, strengthening DEI, investing in communities and leading responsibly.
A total of 26 AGA member organizations participated in the study, including companies from the manufacturer (8) and the commercial and tribal operator (18) segments of the gaming industry. Through the EEO-01 form, participants provided gender, race/ethnicity and job classification data for their workforces. Participants submitted data to a third-party accounting firm which calculated the various diversity metrics and safeguarded confidentiality. The data submitted has been reviewed for consistency across participants.
