The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board says diversity hiring is rising at the 13 casinos across the state.
The board's annual Diversity Report indicates a year-to-year progression in diversity hiring. Director of Diversity Mozelle Daniels said casinos have done an excellent job of minority hiring.
“This year we’re at 29.7 percent, or I should say 30 percent, last year we were at 25.4, and [in 2010] we were at 17 percent,” Daniels said.
While goals, or quotas, are illegal to set Daniels said, the casinos wouldn’t need them.
“We’re simply able to use diversity and stress the importance of inclusiveness, and based on the numbers we have, it’s working for us,” Daniels said. “I mean, it’s almost 30 percent without any quota requirement that there be some quota—we’re doing an outstanding job.”
The report also studied charitable donations by casinos. Daniels said casinos are more than places to gamble.
“Approximately, $16,596,650 in charitable donations were given. Charitable donations include community outreach, sponsorships, and donations to various charitable causes,” Daniels said.
Although the report did not specifically cover casino-related construction employment, Daniels told 90.5 WESA News that approximately 13,800 construction jobs have been created as of June 30, 2012. Daniels added that since then, that number has grown.
“At any given moment, we have some construction going on at our facilities,” Daniels said. “We have construction going on, I know for a fact at Parks, and we have construction scheduled to start at some of the other facilities, and when that happens, we have these construction workers out there. We have full and part time construction workers.”
The report, which is required under the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act, is available for download on the Board’s website.
