JUDGING CASINOS & COMMUNITIES
Coney Island needs people who believe in it Mitigate gambling impact on Asian-Americans
Coney Island is an incredible community filled with industrious, unique New Yorkers who take pride in where they come from. Coney Island is known throughout the world for its one-of-a-kind character, and now it has a once-in-a-generation chance at revitalization with the prospect of a yearround gaming and entertainment venue: The Coney.
This is personal for me. I am the executive director and co-founder of Alfadila Community Services, an organization that advocates for underserved and underprivileged individuals, equipping them with the knowledge, support, and resources they need to succeed. The work of my life is making Coney Island a better place.
But the truth is that while Coney Island is an amazing place, it needs help. For too long, many have opposed any opportunity to bring jobs, economic development and other improvements to Coney Island. These people have failed Coney Island time and again and created the situation we have today: a seasonal economy with limited opportunities for growth.
So, what would $3 billion dollars spent on five acres that The Coney would inhabit do? Simply put, it would be transformative.
A team led by New York-based Thor Equities, Legends Entertainment, and Saratoga Casino Hotel and the Chickasaw Nation have created a plan that would actually turn Coney Island around. They envision a hotel, entertainment, dining, and gaming complex built on the world-famous Coney Island Boardwalk nestled in between the area’s iconic amusement parks and Nathan’s Famous hot dog restaurant.
The Coney will bring many benefits year-round, including 4,000 jobs for a community in desperate need of them. Overall, New York State has a 4.5% unemployment rate, but Brooklyn trails the state with a 5.4% unemployment rate.
Coney Island, in particular, has historically lagged behind New York City in several key indicators: In 2015, Coney
Island had a 27% poverty rate, and in 2018, Coney Island had a 24% poverty rate. Simply put, Brooklyn needs jobs, and The Coney would instantly become one of the biggest employers in the area.
These would not just be jobs, they would be careers, good-paying, many of which will be union, with strong benefits. Most importantly, they will not be seasonal like many of the jobs in Coney Island. To promote local hiring, The Coney will actively recruit and hold job fairs within the Coney Island community so that the people closest to the project can benefit, in addition, to partnerships with local education institutions.
This year-round aspect of The Coney means that we will have economic development and investment on a scale not seen in generations. By diversifying the local economy, Coney Island will no longer be reliant on just summertime amusement park visitors.
The Coney will bring people to Coney Island who would not have been there otherwise. Then, they will eat at local restaurants — many of whom will also have partnerships with The Coney and reap the benefits of increased foot traffic. This increase in traffic will coincide with better public safety, both because more people will be in the area and with increased security.
These benefits are why the team from The Coney has gone door-to-door and block-to-block, talking to residents and businesses about why a year-round gaming and entertainment venue would help the community and revitalize the area. We have also spoken to NYCHA residents and community groups. That outreach has also included opponents of the project because we are willing to go anywhere and talk to anyone about this project.
The outreach has paid off: to date, more than 10,000 people from Coney Island and South Brooklyn have signed petitions in support of The Coney, and hundreds of families have participated in community events sponsored by The Coney, with overwhelmingly positive reactions.
Don’t let the naysayers and do-nothings fool you: this is a community that wants opportunity, growth, and a chance. It goes without saying, but some people who oppose The Coney have just opposed everything: new ferry services, the baseball park, and more. They don’t have any actual ideas or the ability to achieve them. In some cases, they were even elected officials that the voters rejected. “No” is not a viable path for Coney Island.
Coney Island has been a showcase for the world. The Coney can help bring back that spotlight. All Coney Island needs is a chance and for people who believe in it. I believe in Coney Island and I believe in the promise of what The Coney would do for it. Let’s get this right and revitalize a community in desperate need of hope.
As big casino companies eagerly scour the downstate region in hopes of winning one of the three new casino licenses, it’s clear they have Asian-Americans squarely in their sights. What remains to be seen is the disproportionate harm these new casinos will have on this historically marginalized and increasingly vulnerable community.
On a daily basis, Asian-Americans in and around New York City are bombarded with gambling advertisements showcasing the glitz, glamor and great possibility found in the tristate area’s many casinos.
Casino ads targeting Asian-Americans often line the No. 7 train, which feeds directly into the heavily populated Asian-American community along Main Street, Flushing. Chinese and Korean newspapers teem with targeted marketing. Meanwhile charter buses shuttle patrons nearly door-to-door from Flushing, Chinatown and Brooklyn to casinos sometimes hundreds of miles away in upstate New York or New Jersey and Connecticut.
In a surprising display of cultural competency, many of these casinos target Asian-American communities with rare, in-language ability complete with promotional giveaways centered around important Asian holidays like Lunar New Year. Resorts World offers Lucky Dragon Red Envelope giveaways and a Gong Xi Fa Cai 888 Cash Drawing where gamblers can win up to $38,888 in cash (888 is widely considered to be an extremely lucky number in Chinese culture).
A cursory glance at some of the big casino company websites shows that these efforts are backed by extensive Asian marketing teams who often offer users translation tabs in Chinese (but only in Chinese).
It’s no secret that gambling is prevalent in Asian communities, and with such hyper-aggressive ad targeting, it’s easy to see how this community disproportionately suffers from incidences of problem gambling, addiction, and other social, economic and health concerns.
The granting of up to three downstate casino licenses will surely exacerbate this problem, especially as these companies are deliberately and unashamedly targeting Asian-American communities. While many studies have been conducted on how much revenue these new casinos will generate for the city, little research has been done on the potential harmful impacts that will result from placing these casinos in the backyard of New York City’s Asian-American communities.
In partnership with service providers like Hamilton Madison House, which operates behavioral health services in gambling prevention among Asian-Americans, and NYU Langone, we hosted a roundtable discussion in January to examine the impacts of gambling in Asian-American communities.
We found a disappointing lack of data on the potential impacts, coupled with a dearth of culturally competent nonprofit service providers, and virtually zero in-language government resources equipped to address the long-standing issues of problem gambling within the Asian-American community.
Casino companies like to talk about responsible gaming and pat themselves on the back for offering minimal-effort voluntary exclusion programs, but there is a huge disparity between their efforts to lure Asians into the casinos and what they’re doing to mitigate harm.
Gambling in the Asian-American community is a problem that unfortunately is not being taken seriously enough, and there can be no doubt that the arrival of new casinos in New York City will lead to increased rates of gambling addiction, financial hardship and strained familial relationships for Asian-American New Yorkers.
Moreover, the proximity of casinos to Asian-American populated communities raises concerns about vulnerable elderly and low-income groups who are already at high risk of exposure.
Like any addiction, those who seek help are often able to overcome their demons. At our roundtable, Hamilton Madison House cited a case study of a 57-year-old low-income Chinese man who would spend more than a quarter of his weekly pay gambling. After eight years of in-language therapy, group sessions and psychiatric services, he eventually kicked his habit and stopped gambling altogether.
If new casinos do come to our communities, one thing is abundantly clear: the big casino companies who will be profiting off the backs of Asian-American communities, along with the government entities responsible for oversight, addiction outreach and treatment, must up their ante to meet the needs of this historically underfunded and victimized community.
That means investing in a lot more than just fancy games carefully crafted to appeal to Asian-Americans; it means doing more than building opulent subway entrances and bike paths; and it means a lot more than giving one-shot funding to the communities who stand to be impacted by these casinos for generations.
It means investing real long-term dollars toward culturally sensitive and linguistically capable services to safeguard this increasingly vulnerable community from further harm and scaling back the predatory practices that have led too many down a path of isolation and destruction.