The American Gaming Association Thursday released research indicating that the gaming industry is more diverse than national and hospitality-industry benchmarks. Results from the research indicate that more than half of gaming-industry employees (61.1%) are minorities compared to 52% in the broader hospitality industry and 42% of the entire U.S. workforce.
“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 in a statement. “Encompassing data from across commercial, tribal, and manufacturing gaming verticals, the survey highlights our industry’s leadership on diversity, while presenting areas for continued progress.”
Other findings include:
- 23% of gaming employees are Hispanic and 19% are Black, each figure higher than the national workforce and concurrent with the hospitality industry.
- 60% of gaming employees are minorities, up nearly 20% from 2011 and higher than the hospitality sector and national workforces overall.
- 45% of gaming-manufacturer employees are minorities, compared to 38% of the broader electronic-manufacturing workforce.
Also, the leadership pipeline in the gaming industry is more diverse than national averages at the first/mid-level manager and professional levels: 45% of first/mid-level managers are minorities, while 43% of professionals are minorities, each 10 to 12 points above national and hospitality benchmarks.
“As today’s report shows, our industry has made impactful strides toward becoming more diverse, but there is more work to do,” Miller said. “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.”
Women comprise 48% of the gaming-industry workforce, in line with the national figures. But representation does drop off at more senior-level job classifications.
The research was derived from statistics supplied by 26 AGA member organizations, including eight manufacturers and 18 commercial and tribal operators. Participants submitted gender, race/ethnicity, and job-classification data for workforces to a third-party accounting firm that calculated the various diversity metrics and safeguarded confidentiality.
