The Voice Gap: 4 in 5 Americans Can’t Name a Female Casino Executive

_{Amy Howe, Virginia McDowell, and Denise Coates are among the most powerful women in gambling — yet combined, only 14 out of 1,500 Americans could name them. (Image: Casinos.com)}

Ask someone to name a famous casino mogul and they’ll likely say Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson, or maybe even the fictional Danny Ocean. Ask them to name a female casino executive and you’ll get silence.

In a Casinos.com survey of over 1,500 U.S. adults, nearly 4 in 5 respondents (78.8%) could not name a single female CEO or executive in the online casino or land-based gambling industry. Among the 332 who claimed they could, fewer than one in three actually provided a legitimate name.

When fewer than one in five Americans can name a woman who leads in one of the country’s fastest-growing industries, the issue goes deeper than a knowledge gap.

The findings, released on International Women’s Day 2026, are part of a wider investigation into the “voice gap” -- the disconnect between women's growing presence in casino leadership across major casino destinations and their near-total invisibility to the public. Alongside the survey, Casinos.com conducted a media audit of 26 major gambling industry articles and found that 83% of quoted expert voices are male.

For every woman quoted as a gambling industry expert, five men get the platform.

The Name Test

The survey’s most revealing question was also its simplest: "Can you name a female CEO or executive in the casino or gambling industry?"

Across over 1,500 respondents, only 90 people, which is 6% of the entire sample, provided a verifiable name. Amy Howe, the CEO of FanDuel, was cited just eight times. Denise Coates, the billionaire founder of Bet365 and one of the highest-paid executives in the world, was named three times. Virginia McDowell, the former CEO of Isle of Capri Casinos, also received three mentions.

That’s it. Three women, recognized by a combined total of 14 people out of over 1,500.

Awareness by Gambling Frequency

If anyone should know who runs the industry, it’s the people who spend money in it. But even regular gamblers struggle with the name test.

Among people who gamble weekly, more than one in three cannot name a female executive. Among monthly gamblers, it’s two in three. By the time you reach the general non-gambling public, the number is virtually 100%.

The gradient is steep and tells a clear story: even deep industry engagement doesn’t translate into awareness of its female leaders.

The Gender Divide in Awareness

Women are less likely than men to be able to name a female casino executive. Among female respondents, 84.3% could not name one, compared to 71.2% of men.

The 13-point gap suggests that the lack of female leadership visibility is not just an industry problem -- it’s a representation problem that hits women hardest. When women in an industry are invisible to other women, the pipeline to leadership narrows further.

Where Did the Women Go?

To understand why female executives are so unknown, Casinos.com analyzed who actually gets to speak in gambling industry coverage.

We reviewed 26 articles published between January 2025 and February 2026 across major gambling outlets including iGamingBusiness, Gambling Insider, Casino.org, ESPN, Nevada Current, and CDC Gaming Reports. Every expert quoted was logged by name, gender, and role.

Nearly three out of four gambling industry articles we reviewed did not include a single female expert voice. The annual prediction roundups were the most exclusively male. One prominent outlet’s “CEO predictions for 2026” feature quoted five executives. All five were men.

Only two female C-Suite leaders appeared anywhere in the sample: Denise Coates of Bet365 and Amy Howe of FanDuel — the same two names that topped our survey results. The overlap isn’t a coincidence. When the media only quotes two women, the public can only name two women.

73% of gambling industry articles we reviewed featured zero female expert voices. When women aren’t quoted, they can’t be remembered.

An Imbalance So Normal It’s Invisible

Perhaps the most troubling finding is how few people have noticed the gap at all.

When asked whether casino and gambling experts quoted in news articles are mostly men, mostly women, or a mix, the responses split almost evenly between “mostly men” (37.6%) and “I’ve never noticed” (36.7%). Another 16.1% said it seems like a mix, and 9.6% believed the experts are mostly women.

In total, 62.4% of Americans either never noticed or incorrectly perceive the gender breakdown of gambling industry experts in the media. The reality, 83% male, has become so normalized that most of the public accepts it without question.

Women were actually less likely than men to have noticed the male dominance (34.7% vs. 42.3%) and more likely to say they’d never noticed at all (38.0% vs. 34.5%). The imbalance is most invisible to those most affected by it.

Men and Women See a Different Industry

The survey asked whether the casino industry is equally welcoming to men and women. The gap between male and female perceptions was significant.

Women were 40% more likely than men to say the casino industry is more welcoming to men (39.0% vs. 27.9%). Nearly half of male respondents (47.2%) described the industry as equally welcoming, a view shared by less than a third of women.

For every person who said the casino industry is more welcoming to women, ten said it is more welcoming to men, a 10-to-1 ratio. This perception gap matters. If men in leadership believe the playing field is level while women experience it differently, the incentive to change remains low.

Dealer Gender Preferences

The survey also explored a more personal question: Do you have a preference for the gender of your casino dealer?

Two-thirds of respondents (67.8%) said they have no preference. But among those who do, a clear pattern emerged, people prefer dealers of their own gender.

Male respondents were 2.1 times more likely to prefer a male dealer than a female one (25.4% vs. 12.2%). Female respondents mirrored this almost exactly, preferring a female dealer at twice the rate they preferred a male one (18.6% vs. 9.3%).

Both genders show a same-gender preference at roughly the same ratio, suggesting that comfort and familiarity drive dealer preference. It’s a finding that challenges the assumption that female dealers are primarily valued for their appearance.

What the Data Tells Us

The casino industry has made real progress on gender diversity. Women now hold approximately 25% of executive management positions in gambling, according to the All-in Diversity Project. Companies like FanDuel, Bet365, and Entain have women in their most senior roles. The pipeline exists.

But progress that no one knows about is progress that doesn’t inspire. When 4 in 5 Americans can’t name a single woman leading in an industry worth over $100 billion, the issue isn’t a lack of female leaders but a lack of visibility.

The data points to a cycle that reinforces itself:

• Media outlets overwhelmingly quote men (83% of expert voices)
• The public only recognizes the names they see in coverage
• Women in leadership remain invisible even to other women
• Without visible role models, the talent pipeline narrows
• Fewer women in the conversation means fewer women quoted next year

Breaking this cycle doesn’t necessarily require hiring more women. It requires making the women who are already there more visible, starting with who gets quoted, who gets profiled, and who gets invited to speak.

Methodology

Survey: Over 1,500 U.S. adults surveyed via SurveyMonkey Audience on March 4–5, 2026. Respondents were drawn from a general population panel, age 18+, with no gambling-specific targeting. The margin of error is ±4% at a 95% confidence level. Gender composition: 56.4% female, 41.9% male, 0.9% non-binary, 0.7% preferred not to say.

Media Audit: 26 articles published between January 2025 and February 2026, sourced from major gambling industry outlets (iGamingBusiness, Gambling Insider, Casino.org, ESPN, Nevada Current, The Paypers, CDC Gaming, and others). A total of 42 individuals quoted as experts were recorded and categorized by gender and role.