Interview with Joanna Whitehall, Compliance Manager for Merkur

_{Joanna Whitehall, Compliance Manager at Merkur, shares insights on leadership and the evolving role of women in gaming. (Image: GGW)}

To celebrate International Women’s Day, Casinos.com teamed up with Global Gaming Women and they kindly allowed us to use the following interview with Joanna Whitehall.

Joanna has worked in the casino industry for three decades and holds a top spot as the compliance manager for Merkur. She has worked in the industry for 30 years and originally trained as a dealer with London Clubs International at the old Sportsman on Tottenham Court Road.

She said, “I did it because I wanted to do something glamorous and travel the world. I did travel the world, and I came back to Mayfair, spending my last 10 years in the casino business as the casino manager at The Ritz Casino in London until it closed during COVID in 2020.”

Joanna was asked what her career highlights to date were. She said there were too many but eventually decided, “Travelling the world and working at the Ritz was an incredible environment. We were family there, really.

“After that, working alongside individuals impacted by gambling-related harm was an honour and an education that completely transformed my perspective. 

Now I get to use all of that experience in my compliance role at Merkur and move into the land-based casinos space.” Joanna was asked what her biggest career challenge was and how she dealt with it. 

Unfortunately, Joanna suffered personal loss during the pandemic. She said: “Probably losing my job due to COVID in 2020 when the Ritz closed its doors forever. It was all I knew, and I didn't see that I had any transferable skills at the time.

“Unfortunately for me, my husband died at the same time, so it was a pretty paralysing experience altogether. I dealt with it really by casting my net pretty wide, which led me to working for a harm minimisation consultancy for two years before moving back into industry with my current role with Merkur.”

When asked what the most important quality to succeed in the industry was, Joanna replied, “I would honestly say listen a lot and speak to everyone as fellow human beings who have the same pressures, worries, and joys that we all experience in our lives. 

“Be open and honest and don't be afraid to fail and learn from the moments where possible and share those learnings.”

Joanna was asked what strategies she had used to build a strong professional network. Quite directly, she answered: “I'm absolutely not a networker. My career until 2020 just didn't merely require me to be one.

“I feel really privileged now to have a growing professional network, which has happened sort of quite organically through my role. First with the home minimisation consultancy and now with Merkur.” 

On achieving a work-life balance Joanna shared some of her strategies to avoid burnout: “I'm lucky in my job that I can work at any time, from anywhere. I have a dog; I run; I swim.

_{Joanna’s journey from dealer to compliance manager is a testament to resilience and adapting to change. (Image GGW)}

“I tried to be in the moment rather than sort of wishing life away. Spending time with people out of the industry but not always talking shop, I think, is also really important.” 

We all come across some conflict in our careers and workplace at some point. We were keen to find out how Joanna deals with conflict resolution.

Joanna is a fan of listening to people. She said, “Let the other person have their say and keep asking questions to fully understand their viewpoint. I think conflict is often driven by unexpected or unwanted change. The kind of change that is unwelcome or unplanned.

“It’s important to help people process change by giving them the space and time to do so. I include myself in that. Sometimes, you need to give yourself time and space to understand somebody else’s perspective.”

Things have changed for women in the gambling industry but there still is a long way to go. We were interested to know how Joanna saw the future for women in leadership roles evolving.

With decades of experience as a woman working in casinos, Joanna said: “At the beginning of my career, it was only women that dealt at the Ritz as croupiers while all the men were inspectors, pit bosses, and managers. It was extremely difficult to move up the ladder and having children was career suicide at the time. Coming from that place, we’re a mile in front.

“That said, I almost don't really think about it anymore because I see so many amazing examples of women in leadership roles where I currently work and where I have been working recently.”

With such vast experience behind her, we were keen to hear what kind of advice Joanna would offer to someone at the beginning of their career that she wished somebody would have given to her. 

The positive, forward-thinking compliance manager said, “I would say don't be afraid to move environments to broaden your career and ask your company to give you opportunities for professional development. I think when I was younger, I didn't even realise that professional development was a thing. I wouldn't have even known where to start to look for it.

"Be open with the company that you work for and really ask them how they're going to develop you and keep you as an employee."

We thought it would be interesting to find out what career path Joanna would have taken had she not been in the gambling industry.  

“That's an easy one for me. I would have been a midwife. I thought about it a lot over the years, and I've thought about retraining and going into that or maybe being a doula, which is a non-medical midwife. But here I am, still in the industry, still loving it.”

To conclude, we wanted to focus on the amazing work of Global Gaming Women and all the opportunities they offer. Joanna agrees it was an incredible organisation: “I appreciate the way so many women with hugely differing experiences in the industry come together and share their journeys through this organisation.

“Working in very different spheres, you just learn so much from other people's training and the route that they have taken to come here. It's usually very different from my route, which is good. I enjoy the opportunity to get together with other women and share our experiences.” 

You can watch the full video interview with Joanna here.