There’s no denying that the online casino industry is a very male-driven one – the front pages of many online casinos show attractive ladies inviting the players to sign up and join in on the fun, and the amount of good-looking female dealers in the live casino section puts the number of males to absolute shame. The casinos’ color schemes are darker, and many games feature things that appear predominately to men, such as football or cars. And you know what? That is totally fine! After all, 82% of all online gamblers are men, according to the most recent statistics I could find, so it only makes sense that the people in charge of casinos will try to appeal to their primary demographic. That’s completely fine – we don’t expect casino sites to cater to women just like they don’t expect bingo sites to cater to men. This isn’t really my problem at all. The problem – and it is a problem that’s not exclusive to online casinos – is that the treatment of women within the gambling industry is somewhat insulting and degrading.
Before we go on, it’s important to talk a little bit about objectification. Objectification is a central notion in feminist theory that, to put it extremely simply, relates to the idea of women being relegated to the role of objects that are to be used by males rather than characters in their own right. Think back to early “James Bond” movies – the Bond girl has no real personality or motivations of her own, she is merely there to give up her body to the male hero and maybe die for him. Those characters have been objectified. They’re not fully fleshed out in the way that James Bond or his male villains have been, they’re merely objects that Bond can use and discard to his leisure. They have no ambition, they are there to serve a purpose, and that purpose is to appeal to a male. Of course, that’s just one example of objectification. There are plenty more in real life and in media, too, but I won’t get into it too much, as I don’t want to derail this article any more than I already have.
I (and hopefully you too – otherwise what are you doing here) love playing online casino games, but the way the industry has objectified women is a bit problematic. A whole ton of slots, such as “Playboy”, “Cherry Love”, “Red Hot Devil”, “Benchwarmers Football Girls”, “Girls with Guns” and many, many, many more are being promoted on the sole premise that they feature hot girls that expose themselves for the sheer joy and pleasure of the (presumably male) spectator. None of these girls have any kind of definable personality. We don’t know about their goals or motivations – hell, we can’t even infer any of that. I mean, sure, this is a slot machine, I’m not exactly expecting a deep and compelling narrative, but you can use beautiful women as characters in your slot while also treating them with respect and not purely defining them by their sexuality. For example, the girls from “Dangerous Beauty” are, as the name suggests, quite easy on the eye, but they were not designed to appeal to the male gaze. Even just by looking at them you can learn a few things about them. They’re warriors first and beautiful women second. That’s how it should be done.
But hey, these are just virtual women, right? Who cares if they’re naked? No real people are getting hurt, right? Well… Unfortunately, the double standard extends to the very real live casino. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some casinos that treat their male and female employees equally, giving them the same dress code and the same opportunities. That’s awesome! Even if there are naturally more women than men, as long as they’re treated equally, that’s fine by me. However, in many casinos men are allowed to wear a formal suit (as all croupiers and dealers should) while women are encouraged to wear revealing dresses that expose their cleavage. Similarly, men get interesting rooms, such as ones where they get to talk about sports or politics, while women need to rely on the power of boobs alone in order to attract players. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not some sort of prude that wants all women to be covered up, quite the opposite. I don’t mind showing some skin, hell, I’d even be okay with full frontal nudity as long as the opportunities are equal! If you have rooms with girls dressed sexy, you also need to have rooms with guys dressed sexy, even if their numbers aren’t exactly equal. That’s just how it should be! After all, we’re fighting for equal rights here, aren’t we? And if we objectify one gender, we should objectify the other too… Though honestly, it might be best if we just stick to not objectifying anyone.