The Boston Globe: Gaming Commission seeks audit of gambling marketing in Mass. Asian communities

“Better late than never, I guess you could say,” said Ben Hires, chief executive of the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, a group that helped spearhead that 2021 report.

Hires is among the advocates who feel that casinos have an oversized marketing presence in Asian communities in the state. He hopes the audit will provide data that will shape policymaking around the issue.

“Let’s get it out on the table,” said Hires. “A report versus an opinion is obviously very powerful.”

Thomas Mills, a spokesman for the Gaming Commission, said the agency is “committed to advancing knowledge through its annual research agenda, which has produced nearly 100 pieces of research to inform Massachusetts policymaking.”

Regarding the audit, Mills said, “The goal of this research is to produce an independent examination of how operators advertise and what role the Commission may have to regulate these practices.”

Locally, the marketing push from casinos includes huge billboards in the heart of Chinatown advertising pop stars from Hong Kong and Taiwan performing at local casinos. Casino shuttles also stop frequently near Boston’s Chinatown Gate to whisk residents away to gamble.

Other casino outreach includes sending regular postcards to their frequent customers, buying large advertisements in local Asian-language newspapers, and setting up booths at cultural festivals.

A Globe investigation published earlier this year found that 52 times a day, Encore’s 32-seat buses arrive like clockwork near the Chinatown gateway. And several times a day, a 60-seat bus operated by Bally’s Twin River snakes through Chinatown and four other Greater Boston areas with high percentages of Asians — Dorchester, Quincy, North Quincy, and Malden.

An analysis of shuttle routes with Census tract data showed that the Encore and Bally’s shuttles stop in areas with some of the highest concentrations of Asians, including neighborhoods where more than 40 percent of the population is of Asian descent.

Messages left with Massachusetts casinos, Bally’s in Rhode Island, and Foxwoods and Mohegan in Connecticut were not immediately returned on Wednesday.

Previously, an Encore spokesperson said in a written statement that its “shuttle program is deployed based upon demonstrated ridership demand,” and each shuttle posts information on responsible gambling.

The Globe also reported that casinos entice Asian patrons to gamble more by offering free and frequent transit to the gambling halls and often bait patrons with loans, sometimes in excess of six figures. They then use hardball tactics to squeeze those who fail to pay up.

Specifically, Asian Americans represent a disproportionate share of casino patrons being sued by casinos for unpaid debts, the Globe found. For instance, more than 80 percent of those sued by Encore since its opening in 2019 for gambling debts are people of Asian descent.

For their part, casinos in New England said they cooperate with state and local law enforcement to ensure their properties comply with all gaming regulations. And though they declined to elaborate on their marketing strategies, casino officials said courting Asian customers is simply a smart business strategy.

The Gaming Commission’s audit request was posted on July 1. After a researcher is identified, the study will be conducted and a report, subject to peer review, developed. That report will ultimately be presented to the commission, according to officials.

The commission does not have jurisdiction over operators licensed in other states, and some of the casino gambling outreach and marketing in Boston’s Chinatown is from out-of-state operators, such as Bally’s, Mohegan, or Foxwoods. It’s unclear what the commission could do to curb such marketing efforts that originate from outside the state if they were found to be problematic.

Mills, the commission spokesman, said the agency is “mindful of the First Amendment” when it comes to policymaking.

It’s also unclear how much the audit could cost the commission. The agency’s research agenda for fiscal year 2027 is estimated to be $2.7 million.

There are already rules in Massachusetts restricting in-state casino operators from advertising false and misleading information, from advertising directly to minors, as well as people who have excluded themselves from gambling marketing.

The enforcement of illegal gambling, which flourishes in Boston’s Chinatown and in other Asian communities like Quincy, is outside the commission’s jurisdiction. The scope of the audit would not feature the underground gambling dens that the Globe found are commonplace in those communities.

Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him @Danny__McDonald. Chris Serres can be reached at chris.serres@globe.com. Follow him @ChrisSerres.