Whales aren’t always the primary target
As competition for one of three New York City casino licenses heats up, The New York Times published a story this week detailing the often sad scenario that is New York casinos’ big target demographic: elderly Asian immigrants. While casinos send buses to Asian communities in New York City help customers get back and forth to their properties, the most coveted locations in the Big Apple for those companies fortunate enough to be granted a license are those nearest the Asian population.
In movies and television shows, high roller rich Asians are often depicted as the whales that casinos lure with special accommodations, privileges, and VIP treatment. And to extent, the casinos do go after those deep-pocketed gamblers, but even more so, the New York casinos target older, Asian immigrants living in the city.
Some of these people have fun like anyone else and are happy to take advantage of the junkets and the offer of $45 in free slots play, but the sad reality for many is that they don’t have the means to gamble and they go every day just for a sense of belonging.
“Many of the city’s older Chinese residents rely on the weekly bus routine for entertainment — and even income from selling their vouchers — as a way to deal with the isolation of living in a country where they barely speak the language,” wrote Nicole Hong and Mable Chan in the Times piece.
“But the constant exposure to gambling can also be a gateway to addiction and debt, exacerbated by sophisticated casino marketing and a lack of problem-gambling services for this population,” they added. “Although there is limited research on the prevalence of gambling by race, studies have shown that Asian Americans are at greater risk of developing a gambling disorder than the population as a whole.”
Comfort in a lonely life
Many of the people who hop on the daily buses to the casinos, say the authors, do it simply to sell the $45 vouchers as they main form of income. Guofu Zheng told the Times that he and his wife make as much as $45 per trip to Resorts World Catskills. Casino policy does not permit the transfer of slots cards, but Zheng clearly finds a way.
He added that he can’t find work anymore because he doesn’t have the physical stamina to do the jobs he knows. Going to the casino lets him “be happy for a bit,” as he gets to socialize with other immigrants from Fujian Province, where he is originally from.
“As you get older, staying at home is very lonely,” Zheng said.
A report funded by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission had similar findings, saying that for many elderly Asians, casinos were their only accessible entertainment option. Some borrowed money from friends and family to keep gambling.
Peter Chan, the vice president of international marketing at the Resorts World Catskills, told The New York Times that his casino took “great pride in providing our guests from the Asian community a beautiful environment and welcoming space inside and outside of our property, where our culture is respected and celebrated.”
And that is all well and good, but The New York Times does not make it sound like the casinos really care about the well being of their customers.
Steve Karoul, a casino industry consultant, said that the large casinos train staff to identify if an Asian customer is showing signs of problem gambling, but it sounds like it is more out of concern for the bottom line than about the person.
“You don’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg,” he said.
