Ashley Skeen Unga grew up in the gaming industry. Her father was an executive at resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, and her first job was as a lifeguard at a casino pool.
Unga has charted the progress of women through the years, from when women predominately worked in human resources and marketing jobs to today, when female executives have emerged.
But one thing hasn’t changed.
“I got to a conference, a seminar, a meeting, and I am always one of the few women in the room, always,” said Unga, the Senior Director of Customer Success at Gaming Analytics, during a CDC Gaming roundtable. “I think that stands out to me because I’m always messaging my husband: cross your fingers, here I go, I’m about to go in.
“And then, I’m one of two women (in the room).”
Women have made enormous strides attaining executive roles in the gaming industry. From trailblazers including former Wynn and MGM Resorts executive Debra Nutton and Jan Jones Blackhurst, the former Executive Vice President of Caesars, to FanDuel CEO Amy Howe and Anika Howard, CEO and President of Wondr Nation, more women are working in the C-suite.
But given that slightly less than 50 percent of the U.S. population is female, and 36% of those are gamblers according to Birches Health, the number of female CEOs and executives are few in comparison.
Sue Schneider, a gaming expert who is the co-founder of Defy the Odds, a startup launchpad for underserved communities, says her work partner Kelly Kehn launched SHE EO, a site that tracks female executives around 2000. It initially had 35-40 women listed. Now it’s up to maybe 175.
“It’s growing in terms of senior management,” Schneider says. “We still have a way to go – we’ll see what happens with it. But it is better.
“And it’s not just looking at the numbers, it’s looking at the culture, too. The #MeToo movement didn’t hurt in that regard, because this was a pretty rough industry in the past, and that’s getting a little better. There are more allies out there, and they tend to be girl dads. In many cases they’ll say ‘okay, guys, knock that knock that off. That’s not appropriate.’ ”
Still, women remain underrepresented, according to Global Gaming Women Executive Vice President Pam Buckley, who was an executive for The Fontainebleau and Caesars in executive positions. Part of GGW’s mission is to help women overcome the disparity of numbers.
Global Gaming Women has a number of programs that assist women seeking to advance their careers including networking and mentorship programs. GGW is promoting its “One Up, One Down” platform, open to women and men, that serves as a matchup service for mentors and mentees.
Buckley notes that women can only succeed with the support of all gender types. But there are situations where only women are welcome.
“We try to keep to an exclusivity with our in-person conferences, because there’s vulnerability there,” Buckley says. “But as we push into 2026 and opening up those educational lines, when we speak at all of our conferences we try to have that lens on of allyship and partnerships.”
Does discrimination exist? Perhaps not blatantly, but elements of bias remain in the way people talk and think. Multiple times when Unga has informed prospective employers about her children, there have been subtle and not-so-subtle comments made.
“I don’t think I’m singled out in that category,” Unga says. “I think we’ve made great improvements, 100 percent, if you go from where we started to where we are now. We’ve made improvements. But for sure, (motherhood) used to be frowned upon. That was something that held you down. It was extra baggage. `She’s going to need to call in sick. She’s going to need to leave work early,’ and so on, whatever the naysayers were saying.”
When Schneider started in the gaming industry in the mid-1990s, she attended conferences where there were hundreds of men and perhaps five women. Since then progress has been slow but steady, and she lauds tribal operators who are used to matriarchal hierarchies as being especially progressive when advancing women as leaders.
There also has been a perceptible momentum towards catering to women, particularly in regards to sports betting. Schneider thinks that Betting Ladies provides a good source of information for women.
What’s critical, however, is how women are approached.
“You are beginning to see some of the operators cater more towards the female bettors that are out there,” Schneider says. “It’s a different type of thing. (Women) are looking at it as entertainment, they’re looking at it as interactivity, an interactive community. It takes a different approach, I think, to target the female player.”
Buckley longs for the day when Global Gaming Women becomes irrelevant, a day when women don’t have to beg for opportunities.
“Our goal is not to get to the day that Global Gaming Women doesn’t exist,” Buckley says, “but that there’s not a need to have it as a focal point because we are on a level playing field across the industry, in all sectors. And I don’t know if that will be in my lifetime.
“But until that time comes, I’m going to keep up the good fight.”
