For a bankrupt Detroit, the gaming industry has been a steady source of income and tax revenue over the last decade, despite an unstable auto industry. But while the establishment of MGM Grand Detroit, Motor City Casino (MCC) and Greektown Casino have attracted hundreds of thousands of metropolitan residents into the city, it's no secret that the casinos have become a large stomping ground for the local Arab and Chaldean communities in recent years. 

Problem gambling, while affecting a small percentage of total gamblers, is growing among people age 60 and older, a key customer base of the burgeoning casino gambling industry in Western New York. With bus trips from senior centers and casinos opening not just here, but across the country, gambling is easier than ever for retirees to pick up and, for a vulnerable minority, a hard habit to quit.

Gambling rates among Asians are higher than those of any other ethnicity in the United States, according to psychiatrist Dr. Tim Fong, co-director of UCLA’s Gambling Studies Program. “We did a survey a few years back, and at any given time, 35 percent of people in the casinos we visited were Asians,” even though Asians constitute only 14 percent of the state's population, Fong said. Fong said gambling rates are highest among Chinese, followed by Koreans and Filipinos.