Seven lucky survivors from the serious bus accident on March 12, which
Seven lucky survivors from the serious bus accident on March 12, which killed 15 people and injured 17 others, were released from the hospital that same day. Yet, two of them decided to take another bus back to the casino the next day.
“This is the Chinese mentality: if we don’t get killed, it means that we will have great fortune. If wining and losing are fated, liked life and death, then why not go gambling one more time. The gambling industry does not target heavily on other ethnic groups. Only Chinese people are the targeted clientele where gambling is easily accessible,” sighed Peter Yee, the assistant executive director of Hamilton-Madison House.
Among the thousands of community organizations in New York City, the Hamilton-Madison House offers a very unique service of helping the Chinese community to overcome gambling addictions.
“We are unique because no official organization treats such addiction as a priority. To my understanding, only a non-profit organization in San Francisco has the same service,” he said. This means that in the United States, only two organizations can help Chinese to overcome gambling addictions, meanwhile many casinos focus on attracting the Chinese market.
According to Yee, when he first learned of the serious bus accident, he was able to guess correctly that many of the passengers were Chinese.
“Because I saw the bus was coming from Mohegan Sun. If you arrived in Connecticut around 1 p.m. one afternoon, you would think that 60 percent of people in Connecticut are Chinese,” he said. According to his estimate, about 4,000 people travel to Connecticut casinos from Brooklyn, Flushing, and Chinatown. On the weekends, the number may be as high as 8,000 people. Yee believes that gambling is part of the ancient tradition of China, which explains why Chinese around the globe can’t leave gambling. Yet, he pointed out that some Chinese people have a gambling addiction. The addicts go for a certain “high” – a chemical reaction, it is no longer a money issue. They constantly go for the high of winning next time.
“Gambling addiction is a disease, which is similar to prescription drug and alcohol addictions. Yet, it is ignored by the public and the government. The government has limited resources. The Chinese community does not understand gambling addiction. They are sympathetic to drug addictions, but not gambling addictions. The casinos make a lot of money off Chinese people, but they basically have done nothing to give back. Although they have warning signs on gambling addictions, the warning is in small print. If I had enough funding, I would post large signs on the freeways.”
Because the Alexander Hamilton House already lacks funding, it doesn’t have any resources to advertise the dangers of gambling. Mohegan Sun gave $25,000 three years ago to the House for the fight against the addiction, but due to the economy, the support stopped from the only casino that donated any money. The government also provides little resources. Last year, the center had a shortage of $10,000 to $15,000 in its budget.
Ms. Ma, the community spokesperson from Mohegan Sun, said that her company also donated money to the Council on Problem Gambling in Massachusetts and Connecticut, though not in New York. There are emergency hotlines in the three states; however, New York’s chapter has only English-language hotlines; the Connecticut chapter has Spanish-language hotlines; and only the Massachusetts chapter has Chinese-language hotlines. When the reporter called the 24-7 hotline, a Chinese interpreter was available but said that the hotline is not available to New Yorkers.
According to Yee, the unavailability of services makes fighting gambling addictions in the Chinese community even more difficult. Many casinos have a self-exclusion policy, but only the customers can register themselves to be banned from entering the establishment.
By Hao Hsieh, World Journal, 16 March 2011. Translated from Chinese by Connie Yik Kong.