Exploring Tribal Gaming Employees' Perceptions of Tribal Casino Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropic Activities

Exploring Tribal Gaming Employees' Perceptions of Tribal Casino Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropic Activities

While the business case for employee satisfaction is well documented in the service profit chain and the cost savings of employee retention are easily quantified, the means to achieving these related goals in the casino industry is not well known. We argue that employee satisfaction and retention is linked to a culture of employee pride in employer community engagement through charitable contributions and philanthropy. In particular, we find that employees in casinos that are owned by tribal governments in the United States find particular pride in sharing the tribal government’s community engagement and philanthropic activities with casino guests, who often wonder “where the money goes.” We will support our case with data collected from tribal gaming employees in four Southern California casino properties that demonstrate that employees are a good source to share crafted messages with casino guests. We will also put these philanthropic and charitable contributions in the larger context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies that Las Vegas casino companies have implemented through their trade association, the American Gaming Association, in order to manage perceptions of the gambling industry in the United States.