Iowa Holds Summit on Women’s Role in Casinos

Women in Iowa who lead the state’s casino industry recently met for their first ever summit. Nancy Ballenger, the Vice President and General Manager at Isle of Capri Casino in Bettendorf, said that they discussed how to mentor women who are new in the industry and how to balance the job with other parts of their lives.

Ballenger said that the industry is full of opportunities for women, “We’ve got people who cover the finance area, cover the marketing area, human resources — which are in many of our other businesses in Iowa. And certainly then there’s the gaming specific things, the table games, slots, those types of stuff.”

Ballenger has been in the casino industry since 1991 and worked her way to a managerial position.

She said that the industry “kind of gets in your blood and folks seem to kind of very quickly get on board.”

Women are definitely leading the way in Iowa casinos; there are 18 commercial casinos and five women general managers. An impressive 52% of the casino workforce is women with many of the key positions also held by women.

Ballenger said that they took surveys after the summit and will review them to see if there is demand for more in the future.