Top Of The Casino Industry Hurting The Most In Current Economy

This is not a good time to be a casino employee. As with many other industries, casino companies are having to make difficult choices regarding their employees, and while low ranking employees are being fired, the top executives are also taking a major hit.

Casinos around the country have been laying off workers for the past year because of the recession. Many people in the US have cut back drastically on their entertainment spending, and it has left casinos with revenue figures that are dropping double digits monthly in many areas.

In the biggest of casino destinations, such as Atlantic City and Las Vegas, executives are being given ultimatums by their employers. Either they take pay cuts, or they risk losing their jobs all together.

These executives are used to living grand lifestyles. The pay cuts in some casinos has been up to twenty percent. Other casinos have taken different approaches, like forcing employees to take unpaid days off throughout the year.

"Casinos are having to be creative with the way they handle their employees in regards to the current economy," said observer John Withgate, "they cannot afford to lose the people running their casinos, but they also cannot continue to pay them like they were a couple of years ago."

The employees themselves understand the need to cooperate, but that does not mean they like the option of working for less money. Since almost every casino in the country is struggling, the managers and top executives do not have the leverage to quit and find work elsewhere, so they are forced to accept their playing hands.

Even with the executive pay slash, casinos are falling into such a hole these days that they are still having to cut lower paying jobs. Hundreds of jobs have been lost in the past several months and surely there will be more to follow. Atlantic City casino revenue has dropped in double digits for many months in a row, and the casino owners are feeling the pinch.

June revenue figures have been better than earlier in the year, but they still have been down from years past in casinos around the US. The coming months will tell whether the pay cuts helped, or whether the economy has become so bad that additional layoffs will be necessary.

July 22, 2009
Posted By Larry Rutherford
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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