New Efforts to Target Asian Gamblers

The introduction of table games to local casinos is sure to have an impact on one segment of the gambling market: Asian-Americans.

KYW's Pat Loeb reports that competition for Asian gamblers is likely to be more heated than ever.

When actor Chris Noth ("Sex and the City," "Law & Order") kicked off table games at Parx Casino in Bensalem, Pa. last month (right), Melissa Stampf, a Yardley resident of Asian descent, was on hand:

"It saves us a trip from going to Atlantic City."

Stampf does not think it's simply a stereotype that Asians like to gamble. In fact, she thinks that Asians very specifically like to gamble on table games:

"I think it's a challenge. You try to outwit them, figure people out.  It's all a mental game, I think."

If Atlantic City lost slots players to Pennsylvania parlors, the next big loss they face is Asian gamblers, abandoning free bus rides from Chinatown, Chinese food buffets, and other enticements in favor of  convenience.

Atlantic City casinos declined comment on plans to keep Asian clients, and Parx and Harrah's Chester declined to say how they plan to draw them in.  But Lai Har Cheung  (right) is sure they will:

"It's very seductive, the marketing towards that community."

Cheung is concerned that more convenience and heavier marketing will ramp up the underside of the enterprise: problem gambling.  Her fear grows from experience -- her own childhood with gambling-addicted parents:

"There were bouts of suicide attempts.  And then sometimes you're thinking, maybe it's my fault, and then you're thinking suicidal thoughts.  And if it's happening right now with other young children,  it's unacceptable."

Cheung wants to be sure that when Pennsylvania makes gambling easier, it also increases services for problem gambling -- something, she says, she hasn't seen yet.

Philadelphia officials, though, say they're already preparing for increased gambling problems that may accompany the opening of casinos in the city limits -- including outreach to the Asian community.

Arthur Evans (right), director of Philadelphia's Department of Behavioral Health and Mental Retardation Services, says he conducted focus groups with members of the Asian community and was struck by the number of people who said they'd been personally affected by problem gambling.

He says some research suggests a higher rate of problem gambling in the Asian community.

"The idea is if people are engaged in the behavior at a higher rate, then the likelihood of people developing problems is going to be higher," he says, adding, "There is at least anecdotal support for that."

Activists in Chinatown conducted their own informal research and came to much the same conclusion last year, when the city announced plans to locate a casino near their community, in the Gallery shopping mall. It fueled strong resistance and the plan was abandoned.

Drexel University hospitality management professor Joseph Lema (right) believes fears that casinos would exploit problem gamblers is overblown:

"I don't believe casinos are doing predatory marketing toward them.   Casinos don't want to have customers come in and shake out their pockets. They want you to come back and come back happy. They're seeing that long-term benefits will come from more corporate responsibility."

Lema agrees that casinos try to appeal to Asian gamblers:

"They're loyal customers and casinos want to keep them as customers."

But he thinks the hospitality business in general may have overestimated the importance of the Asian market.

"It's not enough to say, 'We're targeting Asian tourists, we're putting fortune cookies out in the lobby,' " he says. "A lot of businesses thought there was going to be a wave of Asian tourists but it's just not going to happen that way."

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