Breaking the glass ceiling
JAN JONES BLACKHURST: A LEADING VOICE FOR LAS VEGAS FORMER MAYOR OF LAS VEGAS, an educator and a vocal
advocate for diversity and inclusion. To say that Jan Jones Blackhurst has made her mark on the US betting and gaming industry would be an understatement
BY ERIN GALLAGHER
I
t’s 8:00am on a Tuesday morning, and the familiar dial tone of a Skype call echoes through a near-empty office. Despite testing positive for coronavirus a few days prior, Jan Jones Blackhurst was full of energy as she sat down with SBC Leaders to discuss her time in the betting and gaming industry. Jones Blackhurst moved to the bright lights of Las Vegas back in 1983, and it wasn’t long before she found herself entering the world of politics. Finding a group of likeminded women from both north and south Nevada, they worked together to pass Proposition 7, which incorporated a “woman’s right to choose” in the Nevada constitution. This group of women then encouraged Jones Blackhurst to run for mayor, something which she suggested was a “bit of a dare”.
“In 1991, I began working with a group of women from across northern and southern Nevada; there was an open mayoral seat, and they came and asked me to run for mayor. So we went to all the political insiders in Nevada, which is still the same group that are the political insiders today. This group of political insiders told me that I couldn’t possibly win. “Essentially, I ran for mayor as a dare because I found it so insulting that someone thought I couldn’t do the job. I won in the primary, which was a shock to a lot of people, including myself. I served eight years at a time when Las Vegas was the fastest
ESSENTIALLY, I RAN FOR MAYOR AS A DARE BECAUSE I FOUND IT SO INSULTING THAT SOMEONE THOUGHT I COULDN’T DO THE JOB
growing city in the country, and probably the world. “We went from 50,000 hotel rooms to almost 125,000 and also put $10bn of infrastructure in place. We master planned all of the city and changed the focus to trails, parks and building communities around the city rather than just rebuilding the Las Vegas Strip.” Her election as the first female mayor of Las Vegas has, without a doubt, helped smash the metaphorical glass ceiling of political and corporate governance. However, eight years in office didn’t come without its own set of challenges - the most difficult, she explained, was making sure that she was “taken seriously”. “The last thing that anybody expected was for me to be elected. But ultimately, they had to deal with me because I was the mayor. It was so fascinating to begin to watch the shift in attitudes towards me when they realised I was going to make my own decisions, and I was going to make them based on what I thought was the right thing to do. “As mayor, I was not going to make decisions based on what had been done in the past. I've often said that many people got so used to me being the only woman in the room that pretty soon, they just didn't see me as any different to them. “One of the biggest challenges was that I had to make it very clear that I was going to be taken seriously. In my first meeting at City Hall, all of the departments had prepared these incredibly dense briefing books which detailed all of the work they were doing. I’d be confident in saying that I was the first elected mayor that actually sat down and read every single one! “But during this one particular
6 SBC LEADERS • JULY 2022
