Casinos Winning Big by Betting on Asians

Dealer Cai Qilin, center, works on Mini Baccarat at an Asian gambling section in Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn., Thursday, June 29, 2006. Foxwoods, the biggest casino in the world based on gambling floor space, estimates that at least one-third of its 40,000 customers per day are Asian. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki) (Chitose Suzuki - AP)

MASHANTUCKET, Conn. -- It's a little after noon, and a crowd has started to gather in Boston's Chinatown. Some are reading the Sing Tao Daily or Ming Pao Daily News. Others clutch plastic bags filled with snacks. All look up whenever the deep roar of an engine sounds like it's coming their way.

Ip Kachuang and two of his friends share a smoke while they wait. It's a routine Ip knows well. Five days a week, he makes the four-hour round-trip bus ride to Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.

"It's a happy place," Ip said in Mandarin Chinese. "It's very easy and relaxing, and it's open all the time."

Ip represents a group of customers aggressively being courted by casinos around the country.

Every day, Foxwoods and nearby rival Mohegan Sun combined send more than 100 buses to predominantly Asian neighborhoods in Boston and New York. The number of buses doubles on Chinese New Year, and on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Foxwoods, the biggest casino in the world based on gambling floor space, estimates that at least one-third of its 40,000 customers per day are Asian. Mohegan Sun says Asian spending makes up a fifth of its business and has increased 12 percent during the first half of this year alone.

The number of Asians in the United States increased by 17 percent between 2000 and 2004, the fastest growth of any ethnic group during that period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And few industries have catered to the Asian boom with as much cultural competency as the $75 billion U.S. gaming industry.

In 2000, Foxwoods, which is run by the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, hired a vice president specifically in charge of Asian marketing. In 2005, Mohegan Sun, owned by the Mohegan tribe, hired an international marketing executive who would target the Asian demographic.

"Our Asian blood loves to feel the luck," said Ernie Wu, director of Asian marketing at Foxwoods. "We call it entertainment, we don't say it's 'gambling.'"

The two casinos target Asian customers with ads in ethnic media and sponsoring community activities such as the Boston Dragon Boat Festival, the Toronto Asian Beauty Pageant, and the Southeast Asian Water Festival in Lowell, Mass.

But buses are key to the marketing strategy. Riders pay $10 for round trip fare, and Foxwoods throws in a $12 food coupon and a $40 gambling coupon, while Mohegan Sun gives them a $15 meal voucher and a $20 betting coupon.

On a recent weekday afternoon, one Foxwoods bus picked up Ip, his two friends, and more than 40 other passengers from Boston's Chinatown. During the 100-mile journey, some watched a Hong Kong soap opera on television sets throughout the bus. Most caught up on sleep.