Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Casinos Aggressively Market to Asian Americans, But Few Services Help Addicts
It's Friday and David Liu is taking a 9:30 a.m. bus from Boston's Chinatown to the Mohegan Sun casino complex in Connecticut. Liu, an immigrant from Hong Kong who's been in the U.S. for about four years, says he first learned about the casino in an ad in a Chinese-language newspaper. Now that he's retired, he says, leaning into his seat, he enjoys gambling once or twice a week for fun.
"The service in the casinos is good," he says, speaking in Mandarin, as the bus's stereo speakers blare pop songs from Hong Kong. "They treat the Chinese well."
On this rainy weekday morning, as most people are just beginning their workday, Liu is joined by about 30 other Chinese immigrants also heading to the casino. The group is among the thousands of Asians who everyday flood the floors of Mohegan Sun and its nearby competitor, Foxwoods, one of the largest casinos in the world. Many of them travel to the casinos on buses that serve primarily Chinese immigrants and entertain them with Cantonese music, movies, and multilingual hostesses.
The majority of these Asian customers are like Liu: They gamble, but safely, and for fun.
But as the two giant gaming complexes have sharpened their skills of attracting the local Asian market over the past decade, most New England communities have lacked any established and coordinated services to help the small percentage of Asian Americans who develop addictions to gaming.
"There just aren't that many resources" for the Asian community, said Kathleen Scanlon, executive director of the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling.
"As far as we know, there are no Gamblers Anonymous meetings in any language other than English," she said. This often prohibits non-English speaking Asians from tapping into services helping those with gambling addictions, she said. Translation also isn’t enough, she contended. "It's very hard to do counseling with a third person [translating] in the room," said Scanlon. To address what it fears is a hidden problem in the state's Asian population, the council plans to earmark a new $100,000 grant from the state lottery specifically for Asian American gambling addicts. The council intends that the initiative, which is still in planning, will include hiring a Chinese-speaking coordinator and training social workers who can treat Asians with gambling problems.
More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=c2e681fe5962fd168dfe1f3b92afa4af
On this rainy weekday morning, as most people are just beginning their workday, Liu is joined by about 30 other Chinese immigrants also heading to the casino. The group is among the thousands of Asians who everyday flood the floors of Mohegan Sun and its nearby competitor, Foxwoods, one of the largest casinos in the world. Many of them travel to the casinos on buses that serve primarily Chinese immigrants and entertain them with Cantonese music, movies, and multilingual hostesses.
The majority of these Asian customers are like Liu: They gamble, but safely, and for fun.
But as the two giant gaming complexes have sharpened their skills of attracting the local Asian market over the past decade, most New England communities have lacked any established and coordinated services to help the small percentage of Asian Americans who develop addictions to gaming.
"There just aren't that many resources" for the Asian community, said Kathleen Scanlon, executive director of the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling.
"As far as we know, there are no Gamblers Anonymous meetings in any language other than English," she said. This often prohibits non-English speaking Asians from tapping into services helping those with gambling addictions, she said. Translation also isn’t enough, she contended. "It's very hard to do counseling with a third person [translating] in the room," said Scanlon. To address what it fears is a hidden problem in the state's Asian population, the council plans to earmark a new $100,000 grant from the state lottery specifically for Asian American gambling addicts. The council intends that the initiative, which is still in planning, will include hiring a Chinese-speaking coordinator and training social workers who can treat Asians with gambling problems.
More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=c2e681fe5962fd168dfe1f3b92afa4af
Add Your Comments
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$230.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network