They Have A Yen For Gambling
I took Monday off to join a friend help celebrate her 63rd birthday at the local Indian gambling casino here in southwest Riverside County, Calif. Now what I’m about to report is in no way considered on my part a racist comment. So, relax and take it for what it’s worth.
The vast preponderance of people at the slots and gaming tables were Filipinos and other Asian decent. I don’t know why but the Orientals are culturally a group of gambling fools.
I sat at a 21 table for five hours nursing my $80 buy-in at a clip of $10/minimum bet. During all that time one white lady about 45 and an old white guy about my age and myself were the only players not Oriental, or in this case, Filipino.
After each played five or six hands, I would ask if they visited the casinos often.
“Oh, yes,” gushed a young woman. “My husband and I come here at least once a month.”
Her husband said gambling was the best way to have fun on the town. “It’s relatively an inexpensive recreation,” he said.
His wife said they lose “a little” most of the time. She said they have won “big time” but mostly are satisfied by breaking even. By that, she said the gambling winnings offsetting transportation, food, hotel and live entertainment expenses.
I noticed the couple were experienced players, alternating their bets from the minimum but never more than $25 per hand.
One Filipino was an emotional guy, always talking to the dealer and giving a live commentary on his hands. He started by cashing in two $100 bills. He kept losing until he dropped down his last $200, by that time totaling about $1,000. When he lost that, he uttered the F bomb and left rather ungraciously.
“Better luck next time, Mario,” the dealer said. I asked the dealer if Mario was a regular. “About once a week.” I told the dealer Mario seemed a good customer. “The best,” he said. “Good tipper?” I asked. “Oh, yeah, when he wins.”
I killed the last hour wheeling around the casino looking for my friend somewhere playing the slots. I never found her, knowing we’d meet in the lobby at 4:30 p.m. to catch the bus home. In stead, I started counting the number of Orientals manning the slots. Each row of about 10 players had at least six Orientals.
I left the casino thinking if that the economy is at an ebb, you wouldn’t know it from those that make up our Asian contingent. By mid afternoon, this casino I visited was packed.
I was bitten by the casino bug early in life. At the time, I was working as a sports writer for the Klamath Falls Herald & News. One Friday, I cashed my $85 weekly paycheck and drove to Lake Tahoe. After 12 hours, I parlayed that to $8,700. I was filthy rich.
Over the next 30 years, I visited the Nevada casinos about once every two years and returned the initial winnings by probably four times that amount. Yesterday was the first time in 12 years I had stepped foot inside a casino.
I haven’t missed a thing. But got more fun out of observing the demographics than losing my $80. But as the Filipino lady said, it was cheap entertainment compared to taking the grandkids to Disneyland.
I had fun. So did the birthday girl. She won $35 playing the slots.
12 Responses to “They Have A Yen For Gambling”
I noticed the same thing in Macao.
(Psst…in general, rugs are “oriental”, people are “Asian”)
I'm glad you had fun, but I'm not sure what the point of this post was?
Geez. I thought Persians were rugs.
As for the post's purpose, I'm a student of political and cultural behavior and thought a small segment of our society made up such a disproportionate participation in the proliferation of gaming casinos was kinda interesting. I could be wrong. Maybe it's a contender for one of Keith Olbermann's Countdown Oddball segments. — Jer
Jerry, did you happen to notice a large amount of retirees? Just curious, since the few times I've been in casinos they seemed to be disproportionately represented.
“I thought Persians were rugs.”
Ha! Persians are certainly also rugs, if they come from Iran.
Just so you know, I'm not offended, but there are many who could be. Since it's always a pain to have one's point subverted by a simple and innocent slip of terminology, I just thought you might like to know.
Maybe about 40% by my guessing. — Jer
” I don’t know why but the Orientals are culturally a group of gambling fools.”
Aren't you in Southern California? Bicycle Club and Pai Gow were known even before 1990, if I recall.
Our military has gambling slots on military bases in Japan. Seems to be all Orientals in those suckers too.
I'm still disappointed Amtrak and the cities of LA and Las Vegas weren't thinking. They should be running Talgo trainsets between LA and Las Vegas, with on-board gambling available when the train is off the platform of LA Union Station or outside that city's limits. Never mind other touches in the bistro car (clothing or lack thereof by the wait staff). Who says Amtrak can't make money? $$$
Yikes…Riverside?
If you watched any of the televised poker, there is a huge Asian contingent in it. Vietnamese and Filipinos more than Chinese or Japanese. And yes, places like the Indian casino in Northern California have for years catered to the Asian custoners from Northern Virginia.
As someone who has lived in Asia and has long studied the cultures there even before doing so, History, politics, philosophy, religion, sociology, etc, perhaps I can shed a tad of light on the situation. I will make the disclaimer that I am not nearly as knowledable about Filipinos who are mentioned often above but am more familiar with Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and other east asain mainland nations. That being said, if you look at historical and cultural factors you will see why it is likely East Asians are more prone to gambling than many western cultures (although I think the Greeks rival them).
First of all Luck is a prominent feature in many of the religions. The Japanese for example had 7 different Gods for luck as opposed to just one found in many of the West's older Polytheistic religions. Why so many? well each represents a different aspect of luck, for example Jur?jin was the God of longevity, Hotei was the god of abundance and good health, Benzaiten was the god of beauty and the arts, Ebisu of fishermen, Bishamonten of warriors, etc. Well you might think of these as having counterparts in say Greek mythology as they has gods for these things too. however the Greek Gods did not generally appear together as a unit like the Japanese ones did and collectively symbolize good fortune and harmony with each other.
Well why was that the case in Japan (or in China where the 7 mostly originated in (except for Ebisu) you might ask. Well for me the answer is what Karl Wittfogel referred to as “oriental despotism”. Wittfogel pointed out that Asian dynastic governments came about largely due to wet rice production. I don't know what anyone here knows about rice growing; so without going into too much detail I'll say that it is labor intensive and requires a complicated system of irrigation and management of water resources. This type of production particularly flourishes in flood plains like found in China and Vietnam and is why larger populations and civilization arose in these areas as there was enough food to support larger populations, and this food production required large bureaucracy for coordination.
Now what does that have to do with luck?, you might ask, well here is my theory. Given this condition of a large central government and a need to coordinate large amounts of resources and large numbers of people living in close quarters, it was in the interest of religions to praise harmony and set classes of people each with their duties to the whole. Aside from the later arriving Confucian examination system, these cultures tended to have very little upward mobility and were fairly rigid. and that was considered ones karma. So if the people couldn't really hope for much in the way of advancement via their own efforts, what could they do? Pray for good fortune and good luck. Also, gambling was the way one might possibly make a much better life for oneself if the gods smiled on you. The Gods were a set, just like the society and luck was not just desired by those at the bottom but on each rung. To stand out with special achievement was often looked down on as it would disrupt the harmony of the whole, but no one could question ones success at gambling because the will of the Gods was involved. Gambling did not involve brown-nosing ones superiors nor in making extra efforts that made the others of your class look bad bringing shame upon them. Gambling was just luck and a successful gambler could be envied by his neighbors without being despised, he was just lucky by the will of the Gods.
When I was in China, the Chinese people reacted to some things that one wouldn't expect in the US. I have always had largish hanging earlobes,. To the Chinese this was a very appealing thing as these were the earlobes of the Budda (previously Budai, who was known as Hotei in Japan). Many Chinese people thought I must be very lucky due to this a fact that was further enhanced by the shape of my skull, which many of them wanted to feel as well it being a lucky shape as well. My Birthday was on a lucky number as well, and so forth. I was essentailly a model of good luck personified in their eyes, LOL, even though at the time I didn't have quie the budda's belly, which I have since been making some progress towards. In China, being seen as lucky is almost like being an attractive lady in a college fraternity party.
But its not just that luck dictates how they arrange their furnaure, the faact that diner settings are sold in 3s and not 4s, people pray for money and give money as gifts instead of object in red envelopes to symbolize luck and this money is called “lucky money”and is given especially to children who also are allowed to gamble as a normal activity, just like american kids might play monopoly which symbolizes our culture of free enterprise. With all this emphasis on luck and the history of rigid social institutions that reign in other ways to “get ahead” that have historically prevailed in most of the region, gambling is a natural past time, recreation, and means of perhaps just getting ahead.
Anyhow those are my reasonings, feel free to make your own, or point out any errors you see in mine.
P.S. Also forgive the long windedness of mine, but I really wanted to fit in most of my ideas at least in (believe it or not) abbreviated form.