Gambling Service Industry

I. JOB SUMMARY

Main Topic: Human Geography
Secondary Topic: Environment and Society

Overview: Gambling areas or industry is a legal space or place that allows consumers to wager something of value, particularly money, on an event with uncertain outcome, with the main intent being to win money or material goods. Some sectors included in this industry are casinos, lotteries, online gambling, sports betting, and more. Gambling areas are some of the biggest attractions for tourists within the country and international making them city-based hotspots for population density. Areas such as casinos or other forms of gambling also influence government administrative area classifications, policies and geography around these establishments.

Many casinos across the nation can be found on Native American land and reservations. Indian tribes are sovereign nations under federal law (Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988), and states may not enforce their civil codes on reservations within a state's borders. After the federal government gave tribes more control over their economic development, some began operating gaming places that conflicted with state and local laws. A number of states challenged these operations, but a series of Supreme Court cases were decided in the tribes favor. Tribes can operate full-scale casino gambling on reservations in any state that allowed such gambling anywhere within its borders, provided the details of the operation were set forth under a tribal-state compact.

The following are examples of Gambling areas job titles:

Gambling Managers: Gambling managers plan, direct or coordinate gambling operations in a casino. They also may formulate house rules within a gambling establishment.

Gambling Surveillance Officers and Gambling Investigators: Gambling Surveillance Officers and Gambling Investigators observe gambling operation for irregular activities such as cheating or theft by either employees or patrons. They also investigate potential threats to gambling assets such as money, chips, and gambling equipment and act as oversight and security agent for management and customers. As a gambling surveillance officer one must have a working knowledge of English language, public safety and security, computers and electronics, mathematics and administrative procedures.

Gambling managers and other related careers need geographic skills for various reasons. They manage and watch the patrons in their establishment. For managing an effective gambling establishment, one must know how to deal with people from different cultures and regions of the world. Locations quite often influence social and cultural processes. To do so effectively, knowledge of human geography and cultural geography is vital. Second, they need geographic skills such as geographic information systems (GIS), and other surveillance technologies and computer programs, first to select the right geographic location to establish a gambling area and second to analyze and predict human behavior and manage the flow of people.

Geographers at work:  Cultural geographers, human geographers, social geographers, economic geographers, geographic information scientists.

Recommended College Courses:  Human geography, social geography, social theories, environmental geography, geographic information science, economic geography.

Skills:  Socio-cultural analysis, Policy analysis, geographic information systems, computer and database systems, spatial analysis

Occupation Group: Tourism and Leisure

Learn more about Gambling Areas from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Department of Labor: https://data.bls.gov/search/query/results?cx=013738036195919377644%3A6ih0hfrgl50&q=gambling+areas