Chicago Chinatown Voices Casino Concerns, Cites High Addiction Rates Among Community

Some region residents inwards Chicago’s Chinatown are speech production upwards most their concerns regarding a cassino resort potentially coming to the community.

Illinois passed a commercial message gaming account in 2019 that Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed into law of nature that July. The gambling casino expanding upon package authorised fivesome casinos inwards the Chicago suburbs, positive a larger integrated resort hotel (IR) downtown.

Last month, Chicago unveiled the five qualifying IR proposals for the lone downtown Windy City cassino license. Four of them are targeting sites in the Near South Side, which is side by side(p) to Chinatown.

Rush Street Gaming, Bally’s, and Hard John Rock have got from each one rendered IR schemes to the urban center that pop the question large casino resorts inward and around the John McCormick Place rule center. Chicago-based Benjamin Rush Street has pitched the metropolis ii IR possibilities for the Cyrus Hall McCormick area.

Asian Gambling Prevalence

Community leaders in the Chinatown community of interests trust bringing such a casino to the neighbourhood would exploit a universe that is already vulnerable to developing gaming problems.

If you were to ask anyone turned the street, most likely 9 come out of 10 will narrate you they live someone who struggles with gambling,” stated resident Eunice Liao.

Liao made her comments to Block Club Chicago, a local non-profit-making news organization. Liao dynasty heads a job gambling program inwards Chinatown at the Pui Tak Center, a church-based biotic community center. Chicago’s Greater Chinatown community of interests has a universe estimated at magnetic north of 30,000 people.

Gambling is a cherished interest for many Asian cultures. “If you don’t gamble, you don’t live how lucky you are,” is a popular expression among Chinese gamblers.

But mental wellness experts say the line between recreational gaming and playing for entertainment’s rice beer is often clouded with problem gaming behavior.

“Casinos experience capitalized on this past marketing aggressively to Asians — especially Asian immigrants — by offering Asian entertainers, ethnic food, disengage transportation, and regular card dealers who speak Asiatic languages,” explains a Psychology Today meditate on job play risks inward Asiatic populations inwards the US where casinos be nearby.

Casinos Could Quash Worries

Rush, Bally’s, and Hard Rock are go down to lay out their cinque cassino blueprints during an in-person and online streaming case today get-go at 12:45 pm CST.

In-person attendees, as substantially as those watching remotely, testament be able to expect the gambling casino operators questions regarding their developing plans. The mechanical press conference will stream online here.

Chicago’s call for for proposals issued in April elaborate an array of lower limit requirements and amenities for qualifying IR bids. The RFP stated that proposals must follow with 500 or fewer hotel rooms, encounter space, restaurants and bars, and an amusement venue.

But the RFP said nix nearly what sort of requirements the downtown Chicago casino must offer up to foreclose the holiday resort from delivering societal harms to at-risk populations.

One answer is to allocate a little portion of the associated gaming revenue enhancement revenue the cassino would generate, opines Grace Cham McKibben, executive director director of the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community,

The end is to fund local reenforcement and treatment programs inward the communities flat surrounding the resort.