NATIONAL GAMBLING IMPACT STUDY COMMISSION

MATTHEW WALKER

MR. WALKER: Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Commissioners. We appreciate the opportunity to speak on an issue that should be front and center in the debate over the net social and economic impacts of gambling.

At issue is the quality of jobs in the gaming industry. Our union represents some 75,000 casino, card club and race track employees across the United States, including about 13,000 right here in Atlantic City. That is more than any other labor organization. We are uniquely qualified to address the issue of job quality.

Assessing job quality in the gaming industry is more complicated than one would guess from listening to those who advocate for or against gambling, we hope to cut through the rhetoric and give you some tools to assess the quality of gaming industry jobs in Atlantic City and wherever else the Commission may travel.

Specifically, we want to give you four criteria upon which to evaluate job quality. Income, does the job pay well enough to support a family? Health insurance, does it provide family medical benefits at an affordable price? Pension, does it offer retirement benefits? Job security, is the job going to be there next year?

In a moment, we are going to take you through these four criteria, but first to give you a little background on our union and its membership here in Atlantic City, I would like to introduce Bob McDevitt, the President of Local 54, which represents employees of all 12 Atlantic City casinos.

Bob?