Caesars executive Jan Jones Blackhurst told attendees at a gaming conference in Spain that they must take responsibility to dictate the responsible gaming agenda in the gaming industry.
Blackhurst, a former two-term Las Vegas mayor and now executive vice president for public policy and corporate responsibility at Caesars Entertainment, told the delegates of the World Gaming Executive Summit, being held at the W Hotel in Barcelona, that the industry must “tell its own story” with respect to problem gambling prevention.
“At Caesars, we employ 900 responsible gaming ambassadors specifically trained to approach customers that appear to be experiencing problems,” she said, noting that the general public also needs to be aware that more than 98 percent of casino customers gamble responsibly.
“The question is: ‘What story do you want to tell?’ and do you want to tell it or should you let legislators do it for you?” she said. “When telling this story, authenticity is the key. You can’t just say you’re doing it. By not telling our own good-news stories, we are missing the opportunity to be treated with the respect I think we deserve as an industry.”
Blackhurst also highlighted statistical data showing that companies actively working toward maintaining a diverse workforce show better commercial performance. “It’s not just a ‘nice to have’,” she said of gender and ethnic equality, “but that something that will boost all aspects of the organization… Eighty percent of our slots players in Caesars in the U.S. are women, but the games are still being designed by men, mostly. Perhaps we’re missing a trick.”
