Pamela Buckley admits she’s taking a non-traditional approach in her career.
For years she worked on the operator side of the gaming industry, with stints at Caesars and the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas. Her new job as executive vice president with the non-profit Global Gaming Women ostensibly seems a divergent path.
For Buckley, however, it’s a natural step forward.
“This is what I’m passionate about,” says Buckley during an interview with CDC Gaming. “With my previous employer it was an amazing experience, an amazing opportunity. It was hard to make that decision to leave.”
To go from a business that is naturally focused on making a profit to GGW is a challenge. But Buckley thinks her ability to teach and mentor women – she has a degree in education – helped her make a decision.
“I’m taking what I love, my passion, out of the casino side of the world and scaling it to a global level,” Buckley says. “Being able to have more of a voice, instead of scaling it to just one property now, I’m global.”
Buckley is cognizant that there is already a strong structure in place at GGW, and that President Lauren Bates and Executive Director Kelly Hatch have the organization poised to expand in 2025.
That’s why Buckley plans to be a “chameleon” at first, learning more about how Global Gaming Women functions in the gaming industry.
“At that six month to a year mark, it’s really about brand recognition and ensuring that women have a voice,” she says. “Making sure the initiatives that we were focusing on in 2024, if they didn’t get executed, why didn’t get executed and then really ensure that those get executed. … I think (brand recognition) is strong now, and my goal is to make it even stronger and then put my foot on the gas and ensure change and visibility.”
One area Buckley hopes to bolster is enlisting male allies. At conferences including the Global Gaming Expo and SBC Summit North America, GGW education sessions sometimes are lacking in male attendance.
“Maybe some males think that only females can be a part,” Buckley says. “Obviously, our strategic approach is with our female demographic. However, the males in the space are equally important. It’s engaging some of those key stakeholders throughout the industry to ensure visibility, to ensure the education piece is there. … Some of our CEOs, or some of our partners in the tech world, maybe don’t understand what GGW does and what it’s about. I think it’s my job to really highlight that.”
Currently, GGW’s membership includes female executives and upper-level employees. Buckley agrees with the assessment that more rank-and-file employees – those not necessarily on the professional track, but blackjack dealers or attendants who aspire to reach that level – need to be recruited.
“I think a great area of focus and opportunity for the organization would be how do you really engage, how do you penetrate that first layer and level?” she says. “How do you make a robust entry in the journey for that member right out of the gate? So, is that when every individual who comes on board, an operator or manufacturer or maybe one of our suppliers, are they being introduced to Global Gaming Women?
“If you have a dealer or a rewards member or we have somebody at the cage, it goes back to that advocacy and that awareness of the folks who are partners with us, are they hitting the ground running from day one as an employee?”
