Since the spring, at a public community park located at the corner

Since the spring, at a public community park located at the corner of Broadway and 45th Street in Elmhurst, Queens, there has been a rise in poker games held by Chinese and Southeast Asian immigrants. The gambling starts at dawn and continues during the nighttime with flashlights. The main game is Chinese Poker or “13 Card Hand.” The bet for each game is in the range of tens of dollars to hundreds of dollars. One could lose tens of thousands of dollars in a day. According to residents in the Chinese community, many participants are frequent gamblers from the underground gambling dens in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Because these gamblers are afraid of law enforcement, they are pleased to find a new haven and go gambling in Queens instead of Chinatown.

As summer approaches, the park in Elmhurst has seen a rise in the number of gamblers gathering there. The social problems are naturally becoming more evident. According to sources, because of the lack of lighting, some people use counterfeit currency. Family members also complain about the situation. For example, wives complain that their husbands are addicted to gambling and are abandoning their jobs. Community residents also worry that the gambling might have a bad influence on teenagers, who play ball and hang out in the park. Some residents said that initially, there were only one or two gambling tables, but now there are four.

The park is close to the Chinese community and across from a supermarket. There are seven or eight concrete chess tables. Most of the chess players are elders from the community. Sometimes, there are spectators who observe the games quietly. In contrast, two poker tables usually draw about 20 people. They get loud when they see a good card and get vulgar when they lose money. The players and observers are mostly Chinese. The average age is 40 and the most common language spoken is Fuzhounese. There are also people from Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. They communicate with each other and play the games in broken English and with body language.

The dealers at the gambling tables are all Chinese. There is no rake or house commission. One person gathers the bets and another gives out the cards. Each table has a set of cards. The game is called 13 Card Hand. Four people play a game. They must make a bet before getting a card. The average value of each bet is $80. Some people chip in to buy a bet. Some people play with $100, $200, or $300. According to observers, many of the dealers are familiar faces, and each table has several dealers.

“To be the dealer, you have to have enough funds. Not everyone can be a dealer.”
Although every table has someone on lookout, every time the police or an ambulance pass by, people look around nervously. The dealer usually stands on the bench to see if there are any suspicious people around before giving out the cards. The players put a rock on the cards to indicate that they want to fold. To determine who the winner is, the dealer shows the card first, followed by the players.

Community residents pointed out that two or three years ago, Indonesian immigrants had started to gather there for gambling. Starting this year, the Chinese immigrants became part of it and took over the gambling tables. There is no gambling when it rains or snows, but on cold days they come with their jackets. When dealers see the police, they hide the money immediately. The police have apprehended some of them, but perhaps because there are so many, the police could not arrest them all unless the gambling involves fighting or assault. Many Chinese residents nearby are used to the situation, and they think that the gambling is “merely recreational.”

The reputation of the Queens gambling site has spread to Chinatown. The frequent customers of Chinatown’s gambling dens have started to check out the Queens park. Residents from Changle, in China’s Fujian province, said that many Fuzhounese residents live in Queens. As their community expands, their gambling has also spread.

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