“Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.”
Caesars Entertainment respects internationally recognized human rights. In our Statement on Human Rights, we outline the international frameworks and agreements that have helped shape our internal policies and inform our Code of Commitment. Recently updated, the Code of Commitment governs the conduct of our business. It is our public pledge to our guests, team members, communities, business partners and all those we reach that we will honor the trust they have placed in us. In addition to our Statement on Human Rights, Caesars Entertainment is proud of the public stands we take on human rights issues that affect our guests, our employees and our communities. Caesars Entertainment received a perfect 100 percent score on the 2018 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) for the twelfth year in a row. CEI is a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
Jan Jones Blackhurst, Executive Vice President, Public Policy & Corporate Responsibility at Caesars Entertainment, explains the company’s commitment: "For years, Caesars Entertainment has been on the leading edge of progressive policies around human rights. We continue to engage people of diverse backgrounds – including LGBTQ team members, guests and suppliers – to promote our support for equality. Caesars Entertainment is proud of this recognition by the Human Rights Campaign, and to be a leader in championing diversity and equal rights for everyone."
Caesars Entertainment was the first hospitality and gaming company in the industry to establish an LGBTQ Business Impact Group (BIG) for employees ten years ago. It was the first in the industry to provide protections to transgender guests and employees, and to train employees on policies relating to transgender employees and guests. Caesars Entertainment supports LGBTQ-certified businesses through the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce as part of its overall commitment to women-, minority- and veteran-owned businesses. Caesars Entertainment joined with HRC and other corporations to re-introduce the Equality Act, legislation that guarantees protection for LGBTQ people under existing civil rights laws.
For more information, see our Statement on Human Rights.
Caesars Entertainment is a global leader in the entertainment, hospitality, meetings & conferences and gaming industries. Our global operations and extensive supply chain have far-reaching impacts on people, our communities, society and the environment. The objective of effective stakeholder engagement is to identify these critical business impacts, which in turn influence the way our stakeholders make decisions and helps improve the enterprise and our contributions to society.
Caesars undertakes stakeholder engagement at the corporate, and to some extent, the local level to identify our most important areas of impact, setting new challenging directions and goals. Responsibility for our coordinated stakeholder engagement approach is shared among several departments, including Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Investor Relations, and Government Relations. In most cases, our stakeholder engagement process is internally verified, but not externally assured.
Stakeholder Identification and Engagement Process
We actively engage stakeholders based both on the obligations we have laid out in the Caesars Entertainment Code of Commitment, which governs the conduct of our business, as well as the eleven material business impacts first identified through a formal stakeholder engagement process in 2013, and reviewed annually.
Within the primary stakeholder groups detailed in our Code of Commitment, employees, guests, and communities, we determine and prioritize our engagement counterparts using such factors as their level of expertise and relevance to our business operations, benefits of enhanced interaction, and opportunity for informed feedback. Examples of stakeholder groups we typically engage in a given year include guests, suppliers, government, academia, NGOs, employees, shareholders, philanthropic nonprofits, and associations. Depending on the objective and scope of engagement with each stakeholder group, our methods of engagement can range from one-way communication to surveys and focus groups, to more intensive and ongoing joint projects and partnerships.
There are also several methods for stakeholders to proactively engage Caesars regarding specific issues or concerns, such as through board contact or outreach to the CSR team. Many of the results of our stakeholder engagement activities, particularly those relevant to our eleven critical material business impacts, are reported and detailed in our annual CSR Report.
Caesars Entertainment’s Responsible Supplier Statement outlines our reasonable expectations for the responsible and ethical business practices of suppliers throughout our supply chain. Caesars Entertainment has a long-standing commitment to economic inclusion and has been recognized for our dedication to a diverse supply base in each of the communities in which we operate. Based on a lifecycle analysis conducted in 2011, and through collaboration with experts including World Resources Institute, Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, and CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) Caesars Entertainment has prioritized environmental sustainability and impact on climate change, focusing on commodities of concern including paper, electronics, meat, poultry and eggs. We are currently transitioning to 100% cage free eggs by 2025. With support from The Humane League and other animal rights organizations, Caesars Entertainment will work with its committed suppliers to ensure a safe, adequate supply of cage free eggs. For additional information see our Suppliers page.
Caesars Entertainment strongly supports eliminating human trafficking, which involves commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor and debt bondage. We have made a commitment to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.
We maintain a focus on preventing modern slavery in all its forms and advancing policies and programs that support victims of commercial sex trafficking. We have expanded our work with advocacy groups and national collaborative frameworks to advance awareness and drive the elimination of human trafficking. We are founding partners of the Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking (BEST) Employers Alliance, formed in September 2015. BEST is the first public-private partnership in the nation to work across industries to prevent sex trafficking and sex buying. We also participate in the American Gaming Association (AGA) CSR Committee, which includes a focus on addressing human trafficking in the gaming industry.
For more information on our commitment to fighting human trafficking, please visit our Responsible Conduct page.
Caesars Entertainment has long led public policy and advocacy around relationship recognition and anti-discrimination on a state and federal level. This includes advocating in favor of LGBTQ rights to the following legislation: the Equality Act (with official support given through the Human Rights Campaign’s Business Coalition for the Equality Act), the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, two DOMA U.S. Supreme Court amicus briefs, Nevada transgender anti-discrimination bills and a Mississippi bill to limit LGBTQ civil liberties. Caesars Entertainment has received a 100% perfect score in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index for 12 consecutive years. For more on our position on the Equality Act, please see the Vegas Inc. article written by Caesars Entertainment EVP of Public Policy and Corporate Social Responsibility Jan Jones Blackhurst.
In 2016, we publicly expressed our disappointment with the new Mississippi House Bill 1523 which allowed business owners to use their religious beliefs as a reason to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals. We informed our guests that we were strongly opposed to this legislation and, as a company with a strong history of doing business in Mississippi, we pledged to ensure our doors remain open to everyone.
We take a strong public stand for gender equality. We fully support Nevada as the first state to pass a bill (in June 2017) allowing the Secretary of State to survey businesses applying for a license on issues related to gender equality in the workplace. The law allows for the voluntary collection of data and information that will then be publicly available on the Internet. The bill increases transparency and creates measurability, which is the first step towards driving greater gender equality in business. We hope this new law will serve as a model for other states.
Caesars Entertainment is among the global organizations committed to business leadership and policy alignment on climate through an initiative led by We Mean Business, a coalition of organizations including CDP, WRI and the World Wildlife Fund, among others. In advance of the United Nations’ conference in December 2015 (COP21), at which national leaders reached a historic global agreement to mitigate climate change, we collectively urged proactive leadership among policymakers and businesses.
In support of this initiative, we agreed to establish science-based emission reduction targets, designed to empower organizations to determine the GHG emission reductions needed to support the scientific and international community’s goal of keeping global mean temperatures from rising greater than 2°C degrees Celsius above pre-industrialized levels.
Caesars Entertainment supports comprehensive immigration reform that both advances border security as well as streamlines the immigration process for those who are willing to work hard and complete the legal process of citizenship.
Caesars Entertainment supports the Affordable Care Act and is in favor of further reform to lower healthcare costs for U.S. citizens.
Caesars Entertainment maintains a comprehensive risk-based Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program. It includes strong governance and effective internal controls and procedures to comply with applicable BSA requirements, regulatory guidance, and any related laws, and to take measures to prevent its affiliated casinos from being used for money laundering or other criminal activity. Execution of the Program is governed with reference to FinCEN’s guidance on the Culture of Compliance. Caesars internal AML Policy, Know Your Customer Policy and BSA Identification Policy outline the Caesars AML Program and set the minimum standards for the related procedures and internal controls of the Caesars casino affiliates.
For more information, see our Anti-Money Laundering Policy.
Caesars Entertainment’s global business activities generate a substantial amount and variety of taxes including, but not limited to, gaming taxes, license fees, employment taxes, sales taxes, property taxes and income taxes. Caesars believes paying taxes is not only an important civic responsibility, but one that contributes to the economic and social vibrancy of our communities.
For more information, see our Corporate Tax Strategy.
