Strong HR Makes Casinos Unstoppable: Insights from HR Expert Bukky Osifeso

_{Bukky Osifeso has a wealth of experience in HR. (Image: (Bukky Osifeso)}

When it comes to casinos, much of the focus is on tables, machines, and margins. In a sector where high stakes are the norm, one leadership expert says the real gamble is ignoring your people. 

According to Bukky Osifeso, founder of TAG HR Consulting and a global authority on leadership and culture, the real key to success lies with people. Whole teams are built around land-based and online casinos, and inevitably, they have a leader or leaders, and those roles can be the make-or-break of a company. No wonder then that HR plays such an important part in steadying the ship.

Osifeso, who has advised iconic companies such as Netflix, Disney, and Amgen, joined the Casinos.com Podcast to share why the gaming industry cannot afford to ignore culture, trust, and truth-telling HR.

Courage Over Comfort: How HR Can Help Casinos Build Teams That Win

Casinos run on split-second decisions and exacting margins, but the engine underneath is people. On the Casinos.com Podcast, Osifeso argues that thriving operators put culture, trust and leadership accountability on the same footing as revenue. Her message to executives: the fastest way to protect the business is to face discomfort early, not after cracks widen.

Osifeso has led large-scale reorganisations and now advises high-stakes, regulated industries, including gaming, on building resilient teams. 

“Weak HR protects egos. Strong HR protects the business,” she says.

It is a line that sums up her approach. She learned her craft inside household-name companies before launching her boutique firm, TAG HR Consulting.  

Listen to the full interview on the casinos.com Podcast

  

Illuminate the cracks, don’t paper over them

Leaders are paid to keep the core business humming. HR’s value, Osifeso says, is seeing around corners and naming risks early, even when it stings. 

“When you’re there doing your job, you’re going to see around the corner before a leader… sees around the corner,” she says.

 “When you do, you actually help the trajectory of the organisation long term.”

That requires trust: the goal is to “call you in,” not call you out. When HR placates rather than challenges, she warns, problems metastasise until the question becomes, Where was HR in all of this?

Turning 24/7 pressure into an advantage

Round-the-clock operations and high churn don’t have to be culture killers. The starting point, she says, is designing schedules around real employee needs. 

“Some employees actually prefer those shifts that help them be present in their personal lives and their professional lives,” she notes. 

When people feel considered, pressure becomes a source of pride, not attrition.

The payoff shows up in performance: teams that feel “seen, heard and validated” handle volatility better and stay longer.

The uncomfortable truth at the top

If parachuted into a casino tomorrow, Osifeso says she would begin at the leadership bench. 

“Nine times out of 10, they have this homogeneous, insulated, everyone-is-like-me” dynamic. 

That sameness is a strategic risk. She points to the benefit of hiring for difference rather than comfort, a principle echoed by Netflix’s public culture materials and leadership commentary over the years.  

Her ask: diversify voices close to the CEO, confront groupthink and stress-test decisions before they harden.

Everyone is the experience

Luxury carpets and headline shows don’t deliver loyalty, people do. Osifeso cites Disney’s parks to make the point: the cleaner who helps a child replace a dropped ice cream creates a lifetime memory. 

“They are the ones interfacing day in, day out with all of your customers,” she says. 

The same is true on a casino floor: receptionists, dealers and servers carry the brand in each interaction.

Strategic risk vs. reckless risk with AI

AI belongs on every operator’s agenda, Osifeso says, but not as a human substitute. “It is strategic… Where I would say reckless risk is if you think AI can come in and replace 100 percent of the human.” The winning posture is augmentation: deploy AI to speed service, strengthen compliance and reduce repetitive work while investing in people where judgment, empathy and creativity matter most. Major tech leaders frame AI as a durable trend rather than a fad, a view that aligns with her counsel to casinos.  

Measure trust and culture like ROI

Culture is not “soft.” It saves time and money. “Decisions will be made faster. You will be able to take risk faster because there’s trust,” she says. She uses a blunt calculation with executives: the hours senior leaders spend mired in avoidable people issues carry a hard-dollar cost. Building trust, clarity and psychological safety reduces that drag and raises decision velocity.

Osifeso referenced “disagree, then commit” as a useful discipline for speed. The phrase is widely known as an Amazon leadership principle popularized by Jeff Bezos and used across tech; the underlying idea,  debate, decide, align, applies well in casinos where slow decisions can be costly.    

The quiet voices you can’t afford to lose

Every operator knows the pattern: the steady, trustworthy people leave first when they feel unheard. Osifeso’s advice is direct. “I always encourage speaking up.” Not everyone will march into a CEO’s office; that’s fine. Build alliances, test your view with peers, use appropriate channels and get the signal to leaders. Silence is expensive, and often widespread. 

“You’ll be surprised. You sit at a table of 10 people, maybe eight people are thinking the same thing.”

Remote work is here, design for purpose, not control

Casinos need in-person roles, but many functions don’t. “Remote working is here to stay,” she says. The fix is purpose-driven, together time, not blanket mandates. Be explicit about which jobs must be on-site and why; give autonomy elsewhere. Heavy-handed rules breed resentment and, ultimately, attrition. The standard should be human connection in service of performance, not presenteeism.

Generations at the same table

Osifeso urges leaders to stop stereotyping Gen Z or treating age cohorts as culture-war proxies. Blending Gen Z, Gen Y and Gen X viewpoints pays off when each is treated as additive. Her practical nudge: invite a Gen Z observer into occasional executive meetings to provide feedback on the company’s future plans. “You will be mind-blown what they have to say,” she says.

Diversity as a learning loop

Confident cultures allow for mistakes, corrections and progress. Missteps happen, even with pronouns, but intent, learning and behaviour change matter. The red flag is resistance or repeated bias. The target is innovation: “Every single moment you’re learned into something, that’s where innovation begins.” Leaders should create conditions where people try, err, adjust and improve without fear.

Beyond excellence: raise the floor, not the volume

In high-velocity industries, excellence is table stakes. 

“You don’t settle for mediocre, and you’re not coaching up from mediocre. You’re coaching up from excellence,” Osifeso says.

 Her caution: don’t rank individuals on a narrow, singular value. That breeds ego games and slows the company down. Hire exceptional people across functions, assume peers are equally strong, and aim them at the same business outcomes. That is how teams become “unstoppable.”

The Future of Casinos

For casino CEOs, the through-line is risk management and growth. Naming problems early, designing humane schedules, embracing AI responsibly, measuring trust and elevating diverse voices are not feel-good extras. 

Osifeso's closing advice to operators was blunt: “Excellence is table stakes. Don’t settle for mediocre. Hire the best and know that the person next to you is excellent too. Together, you become a force. And when it comes to AI, stop fearing it. It’s here to stay. The faster casinos learn to integrate it, the stronger they’ll be.”

In an industry built on high stakes, she argued the biggest risk is overlooking employees.