Decades ago, corporate social responsibility in the casino industry didn’t amount to much more than donating money to a few local charities and providing meals and gifts to the less fortunate over the holidays.
Today, with commercial and tribal casinos in 43 states, gaming operators find themselves at the forefront of diversity and inclusion matters, social justice, environmental sustainability, responsible gaming, racial and gender equality, and other matters that draw in both the corporate offices and individual properties.
“It’s a much deeper and broader approach now that requires many strategies,” said Gwen Migita, vice president of social impact, sustainability, diversity, equity, and inclusion for Caesars Entertainment.
Gwen Migita, Caesars Entertainment
Migita’s title alone spells out what Caesars, a company with 54 gaming properties in 16 states, faces when it considers its role in the communities where it operates. Migita has been in her role for 16 years, dating back to when Harrah’s Entertainment acquired Caesars in a $9 billion merger.
Fast forward to 2020 and the Eldorado Resorts’ $17.3 billion acquisition of Caesars that was completed in July. Eldorado, whose management took over the operations of Caesars, gave its commitment to continuing Caesars’ corporate social responsibility efforts.
Last week, Caesars released its “2019-2020 People Planet Play Report on Corporate Social Responsibility,” which detailed the efforts of Caesars’ properties pre-merger. The report also outlines the merged company’s continuing efforts toward social responsibility.
Caesars CEO Tom Reeg said in a statement that the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in closures of the company’s portfolio and led to operating protocols and restrictions, has bolstered the company’s perspective.
“We see this as an opportunity to work together in the newly formed Caesars Entertainment, bridging our community-driven efforts and strengthening them within a larger organization,” Reeg said. “Where we had set platforms and programs that impacted so many, we can build them up and make them stronger and more impactful than ever before.”
In July, the company said board member Jan Jones Blackhurst, who spent 20 years as an executive with Caesars, would head a committee overseeing social responsibility and diversity at the board level for the new company.
Among the highlights unveiled by the company in the report was its commitment to social impact. The company’s total community contributions in 2019 amounted to $67 million, which included the value of 370,000 hours volunteered in local communities by Caesars employees. The company said it contributed the value of 46 cents of every dollar of revenue to its communities – nearly four times the average community contribution for U.S. corporations.
Migita said the interest in various corporate responsibility programs is driven by employees and what they see in their communities.
“The commitment is from the top down, and our goal is to create strategies around all issues and carry them forward,” Migita said.
In addition to social impact, Caesars highlighted its efforts and achievements in other areas.
In diversity, equity and inclusion, the company’s legacy properties had 45% women and 35% racial diversity in management roles. Caesars achieved record gender and racial representation at almost all leadership, management, and employee levels last year; 51% of Caesars’ total workforce were women, and 63% were people of color.
The company also invested 1.51 million hours in training and development for employees, an average of 27 hours per team member per year.
Caesars’ efforts toward environmental sustainability showed the company using 2% less energy, 3% less water, and generated 13% less total waste than the prior year.
In the spring, the company opened the $375 million, 500,000 square-foot Caesars Forum behind the Linq Promenade and High Roller Observation Wheel on the Las Vegas Strip. Caesars constructed the facility in line with green building standards, and the company is in the process of certifying the facility to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards at the gold level.
Caesars also enhanced its expansion of digital services through renovations last year, including remodels of Harveys Lake Tahoe and Harrah’s Las Vegas.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
