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Is Working For the Gambling Industry a Black Mark?
An anonymous reader writes 'I'm a recent university graduate and I have been offered a software developer position in a company that supplies software to the gambling and betting industry. At first I was very excited about the opportunity, however, a few of my friends have told me that working for the gambling industry will put a permanent black mark on my career as a software developer. I don't know that many people in the industry with experience in hiring. Google has not helped, and everybody else I ask doesn't know. So I'm asking Slashdot. In your experience is this true? When you hire developers, is the fact that they worked for a gambling company a big turn off? Also, I'm currently in the UK, but would like the freedom of working in US or somewhere else later on in life. So experience from anywhere in the world is welcome.'
Why would it be a black mark?
If anything, it shows that you can work in a highly regulated field that moves a LOT of money around at a LOT of locations with HIGH security.
As long as none of your references are named Guido, you should be fine.
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/26/1758210
My first job after college was in the gaming industry. It has NOT been a black mark on my record, in fact, quite the opposite, it led to my next three jobs and was a factor in the fourth and fifth because another programmer from the same company was also contracting there at the time.
What it did do, though, was set the start of a pattern for me that I've been unable to escape: 1 to 2 year positions at small companies contracting. I suspect that if you're going to work for Bally Midway or some other such big slot machine company, that wouldn't be a problem- but table gaming software even 10 years after the .com I first worked for is still very much in it's infancy, we're not about to replace dealers with robots and just about tech you put into the pit is going to be somewhat hackable or vulnerable to everything from card counting to spilled alcoholic drinks they insist on comping the players with to keep them playing, so it's kind of a tough business to get into. I'm glad I escaped.
Having said that- in this economy a RCG can't pick and choose- you MUST take the first thing that comes along- so go ahead and go for it. Vegas may be the suicide capitol of the US, but it isn't the worst place you could end up living.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
British, working in the gambling industry, and possibly wanting to visit the US in the future? Why don't you ask David Carruthers, Gary Kaplan how that worked out for them?
(To be fair, they were the guys at the top and I haven't heard of any lower level staff being arrested, but still, I doubt US immigration would look too kindly on it if you ever were to apply for a green card.)
I worked in the gaming industry, and didnt have any problem getting work afterward. My next employer was pleased that I had worked in a highly regulated industry where if our new code caused downtime, we had to explain to a state gaming board about how it happened.
It's never been an issue for me, and out of my approximately 15 years in IT, I've spent about 10 of them working for gaming or wagering companies. If anything, gaming or wagering companies seem to prefer people with experience in that industry, so in effect you are probably creating more opportunities for yourself down the track rather than less.
Oh, and if you're getting into a highly regulated area such as slots or table games, you'll find that you'll have no choice but to gain skills in careful attention to detail in areas like version control, configuration management, hardware control, and security. That sort of rigour in those important things will serve you well no matter what your next role.
As somebody who DID work as a systems administrator for a publicly traded, Canadian based company that supplies software to the online gambling industry I can say that unless you're an executive it will have no bearing on your future employment any more than working for an 'evil' defence contractor or such will. Sure, you'd have a hard time getting a job at amnesty international after working for BEA, but the experience you'll get will open more doors elsewhere. The company had far more trouble hiring people who were willing to work for the company, in fact. Though in Canada 'online gambling' had a much more negative connotation than it does in England, where betting shops are everywhere.
The experience I got was very worthwhile. I got to travel to interesting locations to setup the servers. Places like Curacao in the Caribbean, Malta, Ireland, the netherlands (we did work for the government casinos there, in fact), etc. I started out in a very jr position, but moved up extremely quickly because I was capable and they had a hard time finding good people who were willing to work for them. This gave me Sr-level quality within 2 years. I've since moved on, but I would do it again in a second. It's not been a black mark on me at all and people are usually curious about it. Because of complex legal and national regulations, the accountants also were in a similar position. They had a lot of trouble getting quality accountants, so they had to get more Jr. ones who moved up fast.
The executives had far more trouble after leaving, though they also ran the company rather poorly. In fact I'd say that the worst part was having to work with/for some people that I would consider less than high caliber. Because of this, I became the go-to guy to fix poor decisions made from incompetence at the CTO and director level.
Prostitution is not legal in Las Vegas, which is in Clark county. It is, however, legal eight of the state's more rural counties.
A friend of mine once described Las Vegas as "Grotesquely American".
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
I think that the reason a lot of people consider it a black mark is because of the mob connection to it from the "old" days. For whatever reason people associate the entire gaming industry with organized crime. When some potential employers (granted the older ones mostly) see that you worked for the gaming industry. They wonder if you are really trustworthy. Though I think today the corporations are starting to change that perception some.
Don't forget poker, where good statistical knowledge can give you a big advantage.
I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
I worked for "the adult industry" - I had never heard the word flaccid or turgid in any company. That was 10 - 12 years ago. Never had a problem. .... ...
If the company is named "naked girl gash" you may have a problem but if it is "corkee enterprises" not a problem.
We did database stuff, dns, redundant services,
My wife didn't even really give me a hard time
Paid well, guys were funny and I never saw a naked person or any skin.
After 30 years of working ... it ain't the job or the company ... its the people you work with.
You may roll those dice, but depending upon your assignment, you may never touch a slot machine again as a customer.
Having worked in this exact field, let me assure you - After implementing jurisdictional payout tables on a video lottery terminal (poker, slots, pretty much includes anything you'd find in a modern casino), you'll never want to play the slots again.
At least the old mechanical ones merely favored the house, but "honestly" spun the wheels. Modern machines decide how little you've won and then pick a configuration to match the take.
Generally the amount of damage a new hire can do is much more than the amount of good. In most companies an intelligent employee can find ways to steal millions from the company or at least cause that much damage.
This is actually very relevant to the original posters question. One of my friends recently went back to work in the gambling industry at a company he had worked for previously. Even though he had several years prior experience at the same company he still had to go through a mountain of security check including contacting all the employers he had worked for in the interim since he left the first place. Working at a company that runs a high value website involving large amounts of money is only going to help your CV in the UK. In the states you might have to be a bit more vague, but until he gets there this job will be damn good on his CV.
I dont read