The event, part of the AGA's American Gaming Small Business Jobs Tour, highlights the direct role MGM National Harbor plays in supporting Eastern Food Services, Inc., a company that provides M life water bottles and other food services to the recently opened Maryland casino. Eastern Food Services is one of many companies nationwide that benefits from partnering with a local casino.
"Casino gaming is and always has been a strong community partner in Maryland and across the country, where hundreds of thousands of small business jobs are supported," said Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of AGA. "The industry exemplifies the American entrepreneurial spirit with a special emphasis on creating good local jobs for American workers both inside and outside our casinos in nearly every state."
The casino industry is a US$ 240 billion-a-year industry that supports 1.7 million jobs nationwide. In Maryland, gaming employs roughly 15,000 people, supports US$ 446 million in wages and generates US$ 1.7 billion in economic impact.
This week, AGA released a report, The Gaming Industry's Impact on Small Business Development in the United States, that examined nearly a dozen US gaming markets and assessed casino gaming's direct and indirect impact on local, small businesses. Researchers from Spectrum Gaming Group concluded that gaming's widespread impact is felt in markets across the country, but has larger impacts in small to mid-sized communities where local businesses work to integrate into gaming operations.
Nationwide, the report concluded that the casino gaming industry generates US$ 52 billion in annual revenues for American small businesses and supports US$ 13 billion in small business employee wages. In addition, US$ 52 billion in annual small business revenues go toward real estate, finance, health care, STEM, manufacturing, information technology and other industries.
Eastern Food Services, Inc. is the first stop on AGA's
American Gaming Small Business Jobs Tour. The tour is part of AGA's Get to Know
Gaming (G2KG) campaign, a multi-year, integrated public affairs campaign rooted
in authoritative research that touts the value of gaming nationwide. To date,
through its Gaming Votes initiative and broader G2KG campaign, AGA has visited
Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and Pennsylvania.
Source: GMB
