How important is it to have a background in gambling before joining the industry?

There is a sentiment commonly expressed in this industry that if you spend just a little too long in gambling, you will never leave. The games, mechanics, customers, and terminology are all so niche and specific that it can be difficult to sell transferable skills to recruiters – not to mention the stigma that gambling inherently carries. 

Of course, for some roles, companies will probably want an individual who knows the industry like the back of their hand. But there have also been notable appointments made for individuals with little to no gambling experience beforehand. 

Is the industry as isolated as it thinks it is? Or is there potential for people to enter the sphere a C-Level with no knowledge of gambling and still leave it a better place than it was before? 

What traits are important in management? 

When hiring for certain roles, there are more important things than a strong gambling background. For example, GamCare appointing Chris Thornton as a Director of Operations, despite him having no previous experience with gambling, might seem strange. 

But Thorton will be overseeing the day-to-day operations of the charity, which is something he has done for decades. He began his charity-based career working with St John Ambulance as a Regional Director, where he successfully implemented a new regional structure that reduced costs by 61% and increased charitable output by 365%.

Years later, he joined the NHS as a General Manager, before becoming Director for North of England & Isle of Man for the British Red Cross. In this scope, Thornton is more than experienced in driving operations that support the wider public, oftentimes in specific situations. 

This was a similar direction that Gordon Moody went in when it appointed Monica Shafaq to the role of CEO. Once again, she has excellent experience in running mental health organisations, which may have helped Gordon Moody with its person-first approach to treatment.

What industries are similar to gambling? 

Perhaps the industry closest to gambling is that of video games, with both industries invested heavily in user experience, omnichannel or cross-platform expectations, player spend and replayability features. It was no surprise, then, when operators began naming major gaming executives as their next appointments. 

It would be easy to reduce this to a simple concept of “they know how to make fun games” or “they knew how to gamify the products further,” but it goes deeper than this. The gaming industry operates under a strict schedule, meaning executives will understand development timelines and the need to sustain player engagement in the dips between major releases. 

In a similar vein, executives with experience in retail will often understand the specifics behind marketing products that are commodities, rather than necessities. Getting the public to part with their money, especially in times of economic strain, is an art form. Marketing experiences as luxurious can be isolating to lower-income users, while higher-value players might want to feel like they are using a premium product. Gambling companies usually want to target both. 

Regulation, regulation, regulation: What is the impact?

Perhaps the most surprising sector for recruitment is regulation and law. The natural assumption is that anyone working in gambling law should probably have a significant portion of their lives dedicated to gambling to understand it inside and out. 

Some, such as Kevin Mullally, have. Mullally is the current CEO of the International Association of Gaming Regulators, but has almost three years as CEO of the GCGRA, 17 years at Gaming Laboratories International and 12 years at the Missouri Gaming Commission. He is the definition of a gambling industry veteran. 

On the other hand, many international gambling regulators do have Chairs and CEOs who stepped into the role with little or no gambling experience – though they did have a strong grasp of how to enforce regulations across other difficult sectors effectively. A few of these have sat down with Global Gambling Insider to discuss what this transition has been like. 

They explained that the most important thing is to understand how to connect with that industry. For example, when working with abattoirs, one individual explained that front-line workers did not feel heard, so they went and personally visited as many of them as possible. Another individual was openly praised by suppliers and operators for not villainising them, but instead creating an environment where they felt they could ask for permission to introduce new features, rather than ask for forgiveness afterwards.

Perhaps a core example of roles in the industry that cannot hire people in from the street are those found in land-based casinos. Pit supervisors, general managers and eventually land-based executives usually require some experience with day-to-day operations, due to the specific nature of the work. 

While almost all pit-supervisors and general managers begin their career as croupiers themselves, many executives seem to join operators through financial or marketing opportunities and learn the ropes from there.

Is industry experience more important than personality for a job?

The gambling industry likes to think of itself as cut off from the rest of the world. An executive could never possibly understand running a gambling company unless they had direct casino or sports betting work experience themselves. 

And while recruiters on the outside may not see many transferable skills from inside this industry, there are plenty of examples where someone has entered this space for the first time with great success. 

Of course, this is down to each individual and how well they apply themselves to each prospective role. But fresh ideas do require fresh perspectives, and each new appointment creates an invitation for new points of view.