Casino "Financial Manager" or "Financial Manager of Gaming"

Hi all! I'm currently a first year staff auditor at a large public accounting firm where I work on the audits of banking/financial services clients. Within the year I'll have my CPA and I graduated last year with a bachelors in accounting. At this point you are probably thinking 'where the hell is he going with this?'

Anyways, I've been interested in casino operations for a long time. Having studied accounting and business processes, whenever I go to my local casinos I'm always amazed by the number of transactions going on at any given time and am left to wonder how the accounting trail works for all of this. Everything from buying chips, placing a bet, taking out credit, accruing comps, doing a table fill, doing tax forms on slot wins, paying bets made with "match plays". There's both simple and complex methods used to account for all this for internal and external financial reporting, and while I may sound like a huge nerd I love thinking about all of this.

I could always picture myself working in the gaming industry, but didn't know where I could fit in. While bored I visited some casino websites and found that there are a surprising number of positions available at various casinos for "Financial Manager-Gaming". Among the positions that I looked at it seemed most were looking for a BS in Accounting, CPA or CMA designation, anywhere from 5-7 years accounting experience, experience with management and audit of cash, experience with writing of policies and procedures, experience of managing a staff and strong interpersonal skills. It seemed most duties would be along the lines of reconciling and analyzing daily gaming results, overseeing compliance (1099's W2G's SAR's etc), working with the Gaming department, and working with external auditors. Honestly this type of job seems like a dream job to me, the ability to work in my field of accounting and work in the casino industry simultaneously. Obviously I have nowhere near the experience for this type of position yet, but it seems like in 5 years or so I could meet the eligibility requirements of these positions and make a pretty strong case for why I would be an asset to the casino.

Sorry for being so long winded, it's my nature. I know I'm looking 5 years out but I find I'm a lot more successful when I'm goal oriented. If nothing else hopefully this was somewhat interesting. Here are my questions for WoV members...

1. Do you know anyone in this type of position or a closely related field? If so do you know if I have a pretty good sense of what that type of job would entail? Does that person seem to enjoy what they do?

2. One thing I noticed is none of the positions give any indication to salary range. I'm sure this varies depending on location and size of the casino, but would anyone have a general sense of what compensation might be like for a job at this level?

3. Any other tips from anyone who is/ has been in the gaming industry on how to position myself or really anything in general?

Thanks for your time, I figured if anyone would know anything about this it would be here at WoV!

Just realized I posted this in the other entertainment and attractions instead of other gaming business section, don't know if a mod could move it or not, my apologies.

I don't know anyone in this business at the present time, but in my early life I spent 6 years at one of the Big Eight Firms (that tells you a bit about how long ago this was)!

People I knew that left to get jobs in the casino business, did it out of the Vegas office.

If you want to get into an industry, you need to get on clients that are in that industry. That means get transferred to the Las Vegas office of your firm and look to get assigned to Casino clients. Or get on casino clients assigned to another office of the firm. From there you should be able to leave Public Accounting and get a good position with one of your or the firms clients or at least be able to apply to casino's with experience in their industry's accounting nuances.

The industry of the clients for which you are a member of the audit team are the industries where you accounting skills will be most desired if/when you leave public accounting. You will get pigeon-holed pretty early on in your Public Accounting career.....trying to steer that early in your career towards the casino business is your best bet in leaving the firm to get a private sector job in that industry.

Just my two cents, good luck to you!

1. I'd imaging the exact duties vary by casino. Some will have compliance personnel so this position could be more cash management and accounting, others will have a senior level countroom manager and need this person to be more high-level accounting and regulatory compliance oriented. At any rate, you're on the right path based on my experience (which is to say, my friend Kate's experience)

2. My friend put herself through school by dealing and eventually working as a dual rate dealer/floor supervisor. Once she had her accounting degree, she tried to move into a casino accounting position. That job paid less than she made as a dealer (swing shift, weekends, keep your own tips - Kate is freaking hot, so I'm thinking she did pretty well dealing). She did eventually make the change to get a better schedule and a better path of advancement. I think this position, with it's required CPA, may be at a higher level than what she was looking to start at.

3. How strong is your gaming knowledge? I would think you could make up for some of your lack of experience by showing that you understand the gaming side of the business in addition to finance. Make it like they're deciding between someone with a CPA and 7 years of experience but no gaming knowledge, and someone with a CPA and 2 or 3 years of experience who really understands casinos - and who wouldn't prefer the second guy, he's better and also probably slightly cheaper!

I have worked with many casinos helping them with game and floor accounting. My first piece of advice would be to get into the industry as soon as possible in an entry level position. Casino auditing and accounting is much different than other fields and they tend to promote more from within the industry.

I don't know the salaries but casinos usually pay pretty low until you get into the upper management positions.

Entry level on the GAMING COMMISSION side doing audits on the casinos for a few years might open a whole lot of doors working for a casino.


Lady I know who is a lawyer started out working for Workers Compensation board... learned how they work inside out now makes a very good living representing the injured workers against the same board she used to work for.... they realize she knows the system inside out and well lets just say her clients have a better chance getting what they have coming to them



The head of Canadian operations for my company a two billion dollar well service company used to work for Revenue Canada( Same as your IRS) Sure the company hired him while in the growing stage over the past decade plus for his finance knowledge of the Canadian tax system. Last time I looked I think his salary bonuses stock plans he was making well over a million a year


Sometimes getting experience from the regulator side might be a great resume plus

Sorry thinking outside the box again

Quote: winmonkeyspit3

Just realized I posted this in the other entertainment and attractions instead of other gaming business section, don't know if a mod could move it or not, my apologies.

Got it, no worries!

Quote: Paradigm

I don't know anyone in this business at the present time, but in my early life I spent 6 years at one of the Big Eight Firms (that tells you a bit about how long ago this was)!

People I knew that left to get jobs in the casino business, did it out of the Vegas office.

If you want to get into an industry, you need to get on clients that are in that industry. That means get transferred to the Las Vegas office of your firm and look to get assigned to Casino clients. Or get on casino clients assigned to another office of the firm. From there you should be able to leave Public Accounting and get a good position with one of your or the firms clients or at least be able to apply to casino's with experience in their industry's accounting nuances.

The industry of the clients for which you are a member of the audit team are the industries where you accounting skills will be most desired if/when you leave public accounting. You will get pigeon-holed pretty early on in your Public Accounting career.....trying to steer that early in your career towards the casino business is your best bet in leaving the firm to get a private sector job in that industry.

Just my two cents, good luck to you!

Thanks for the advice! When I attended the firm's national intern conference I actually met a girl from the LV office who had spent her internship working on the external audit of a strip casino. Pretty interesting conversation, unfortunately I didn't exchange contact info with her.

As of now I'm placed in the banking and capital markets group at my firm and don't know if there will necessarily be opportunities to move from that in the immediate future. I enjoy what I am doing and for the time being will probably just try to gain experience in this sector. They have covered the cost of my CPA ($3500 review course and close to $2000 in exam fees), are giving me a bonus when I've finished the exam, and absolutely wined and dined me when I was an intern last year. I completely understand their desire to keep me working long hours on bank audits as they are able to bill my work at 4-5 times what they pay me. I'm gaining experience and learning a lot. I have been spending a lot of of my time on cash audit which I think is pretty relevant to my interest of being in a casino setting in the future.

You are absolutely right that you are likely to land a private sector job in the industry that you are auditing, I've already seen several people from my audit teams leave to take manager positions at financial institutions elsewhere in the short time I've been here. I'm out of the northeast, all my family lives in the northeast, so while I'd love to move to Vegas at some point I don't see it in the near near future. That being said, the positions that I have been researching have all been at casinos out here in the Northeast and I think more could continue to develop in years to come as RI MA NY and ME continue to toy with building casinos and adding table games. There are many new casinos and fewer people in the Northeast with experience in the casino industry so perhaps some enterprises may be more willing to take on someone with accounting experience lacking experience in gaming. Who knows, but the prospect of one day working in Accounting/Finance for a casino is very appealing. Perhaps once I've proven myself as an auditor in my current sector my firm would entertain me doing a doing a rotation somewhere on a casino client. There seems to be some flexibility in this regard, a guy from my audit team went and did a rotation in NYC with our consulting arm and we currently have a guy out of the Utah office working on our audit for a year while his wife pursues her PhD at an area university. Thanks again for your experiences and advice!

Quote: rdw4potus

1. I'd imaging the exact duties vary by casino. Some will have compliance personnel so this position could be more cash management and accounting, others will have a senior level countroom manager and need this person to be more high-level accounting and regulatory compliance oriented. At any rate, you're on the right path based on my experience (which is to say, my friend Kate's experience)

2. My friend put herself through school by dealing and eventually working as a dual rate dealer/floor supervisor. Once she had her accounting degree, she tried to move into a casino accounting position. That job paid less than she made as a dealer (swing shift, weekends, keep your own tips - Kate is freaking hot, so I'm thinking she did pretty well dealing). She did eventually make the change to get a better schedule and a better path of advancement. I think this position, with it's required CPA, may be at a higher level than what she was looking to start at.

3. How strong is your gaming knowledge? I would think you could make up for some of your lack of experience by showing that you understand the gaming side of the business in addition to finance. Make it like they're deciding between someone with a CPA and 7 years of experience but no gaming knowledge, and someone with a CPA and 2 or 3 years of experience who really understands casinos - and who wouldn't prefer the second guy, he's better and also probably slightly cheaper!

I'd definitely echo the sentiment from several people here that casinos like to promote from within. My dad's best friend from high school decided to move to Vegas while in his 20's, started dealing at a low end joint while working on a degree. He was very personable, well liked, and pretty intelligent. Moved his way up to dealing at high end properties, then as a floor person, then eventually got into being a top VIP host/casino exec for one of the large Vegas chains. He developed strong relationships with casino personnel and VIP guests alike over the years. Unfortunately he got an incurable disease in his 50's and stopped working. He sadly passed away last year at 57, but ended up working the last two years of his life at a casino that offered him a couple hundred thousand a year essentially just to have a presence around the gaming floor and encourage some of his huge base of wealthy contacts to patronize the high stakes room at that casino. Networking and building relationships is huge, and if you actively seek out opportunities like your friend Kate has I feel like the sky is the limit for where you can go in any industry.

As to your third bullet, I actually do have a pretty strong gaming knowledge. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I grew up just minutes from an 18+ casino and began patronizing it as early as my 18th birthday. After getting sick of blowing my summer landscaping earnings on the Big 6 wheel and very poorly played blackjack I was fortunate enough to find WoO, from which I learned basic strategy and optimal strategy on other low HA games. Five years later, a lot of time on both of the Wizard's websites, and three statistics courses later (Basic Stat, Discrete Probability and Game Theory) I know pretty close to optimal strategy for every table game, VP, and even games like Keno. I'm sure this could be an asset, I try to be chatty with suits when I'm in a casino and I'm simply blown away by how many casino personnel don't know basic strategy, common sense approaches, or even some of the basic rules of some of the games that their casino offers. I would think I could impress an interviewer with my knowledge of gaming as well as understanding of functional procedures in a casino. I also had an entertainment law course my senior year in college where the professor was really into gambling and focused much of the course on gambling related topics. I learned a lot about sports betting, casino management perspectives on promotions they offer like free plays car giveaways and comps etc, as well as even topics like why certain table games with poor odds see a lot more action than other games with much better odds(3CP and roulette and BJ sidebets come to mind... very easy to learn/play and offer the "big payouts", reinforced by somewhat frequent moderately large payouts). Hopefully as you said a lack of experience working in gaming could be overshadowed by demonstrating these types of things, as well as basic understanding of regulatory type things (tax law, accounting for cash) and reporting issues (financial reporting requirements as well as things like hold % etc). I'm pretty outgoing and easy to get along with too, so working alongside other departments in a casino or dealing with any type of customer service related functions of a position could be a strong suit too.

As far as pay I'm still curious if anyone has any sort of idea of a range for this type of position. Public accounting pays pretty well but I know I'd entertain a lower salary down the road for the sake of having a better work/life balance and having a position I'm more passionate about. Right now I'm making a lot more money than my friends in other occupations, but I'm working some pretty crazy hours for it. I make it work at 23 and single but probably not so much when I've got a wife and quite possibly a kid or two. Thanks again for all the advice everyone, much appreciated!