Luring back Asian gamers

Reno has never harpooned the "whales": high rollers mostly Asians known for betting $100,000 per hand.

Only smaller fry visit northern Nevada - not to say that they're stingy.

Until a couple of years ago, the area often got Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans and Filipinos who would gamble $60,000 per visit, said Bill Lang, director of Asian games at the Eldorado hotel and casino.

But right after 9/11, while overall gaming throughout Nevada decreased, Asian gaming in Washoe County was more stable, Lang said, supposedly because most Asian gamers who journey to Reno don't fly; they travel by road from the Bay Area and Pacific Northwest.

But since 2002 Asian gaming in Washoe County has dropped about 10 percent - double the overall drop during the same timeframe.

The reason: California casinos.

To draw in Asian clientele, casinos west of the Sierra have cast broad nets.

And it's working.

Cache Creek Indian Bingo and Casino, along with several other venues, have produced television commercials in Asian tongues and advertised extensivelyAsians gamers are a boon to casinos because they tend to bet large sums.

Baccarat, for instance, an almost exclusively Asian game, generates half a billion dollars per year in Nevada, second only to blackjack.

"Asian gamers are almost exclusively table games players," said Bill Eadington, director of the Institute for Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada.

"Emphasis is on that."

Since Thunder Valley opened in June, said Frank Streshley, senior research analyst with the gaming control board, "we're not seeing a decline in slots but double-digit declines in table games." June slot revenue in Washoe County was up 3.2 percent from the previous year, July was down 2 percent.

Table games: June, down 14.1 percent; July, down 16.5 percent.

The numbers imply a significant decline in Asian gaming for the first time in years.

Before the 2002 drop off, Lang said, he witnessed the Asian gaming population in Reno blossom over two decades from less than 5 percent to a 35 or 40 percent peak in 2001.

This was remarkable growth considering that people of Asian descent comprise only 18 percent of the Bay Area's population - the most concentrated Asian population in North America - according to the 2000 U.S.

census.

The growth in Asian gaming, Lang said, was due foremost to large immigrations of Vietnamese and Chinese to the Bay Area during the 1980s and 1990s.

During much of that time casinos like Reno's Flamingo Hilton catered heavily to Asians, complete with Asian restaurants and gambling areas, or pits, stylized to Asian sensibilities.

Gambler special buses, mostly filled with Asians, trolled back and forth between Reno, the Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest.

"Asians are brought up on gaming as a part of their culture," said Rick Murdock, general manager of the Eldorado.

"They're born gamblers; they love to play and love to play long hours, and they bring these habits to America."

But now the Flamingo Hilton has crumbled; the Golden Phoenix has risen from its ashes, minus the Asian pit, said Diane Arthur, games director; the Eldorado's Golden Fortune is the only casino restaurant in town that caters exclusively to Asians, Lang said; and the buses ... "They're still running," Eadington said, "but Reno has lost a pretty good proportion of the ones that come here.

California ... casinos have proven to be better locations for them." Even though Reno no longer caters as diligently to Asians, for many the town remains a more attractive location than the Indian casinos.

"Reno has a bigger vibe, better atmosphere," said Steven from the Bay Area, in between hands.

A young Chinese man with spiked hair, he sat playing mini-baccarat in the Eldorado as his girlfriend stood behind him.

"The Indian casinos don't even have free drinks.... Here I can savor the atmosphere." The casinos know the value of their Asian clientele, Murdock said.

In an effort to lure new customers, Newco, a joint venture of Harrah's, Eldorado, Silver Legacy and Circus Circus, has sponsored festivities in San Francisco's Chinatown for the past two years during Asian New Year.

Once customers have been reeled in to Reno, in attempts to win repeat business, casinos can indulge them and promote Reno's unique flavor.

Linda from Sacramento, a Filipino with short curly hair, said she is loyal to the Eldorado, rarely enters another casino and has visited Reno nearly every week since 1996.

"I've been to Cache Creek," she said, "but I don't like it.

The service isn't there.

"My friends tell me this is my first home.Where I live is my second home."

in Asian print media.

Thunder Valley Casino has an Asian Gaming Room, ornamented with Asian art.

This in addition to the usuals - Asian hosts, Asian restaurants, mailings in Asian