Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia casinos will all offer table games beginning this year.
To draw Asian-American gamblers to the baccarat and Pai Gow tables, the casino's marketing plan includes Noodle Bars and Sushi Stations on the gambling floor. I know that I feel the urge to gamble when I walk past the Asian Buffet at Wegman's. I take the risk that the fish in my sushi wasn't flown in from the vicinity of the Louisiana Oil Leak.
But there is more to attracting those Asian high-rollers than familiar foods. Some casino elevators don't have buttons for the fourth floor because four is considered an unlucky number in some cultures. Actually, four is an extremely unlucky number in the Casino Maintenance Culture. Many a hernia has resulted from hauling heavy equipment and tools up or down the steps from the third or fifth floors.
When the MGM Grand opened in Las Vegas in 1993, officials re-worked an entrance based on the company's trademark lion after learning that some Asian gamblers considered the open mouth of a lion to be bad luck. Bad luck? How about Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection? Our ancestors who shunned open-mouthed lions survived to reproduce. Their peers who approached the beast saying, "Nice kitty, Where are the craps tables?" became part of the Lion's Buffet. I'm not sure if they had a Noodle Bar nearby.
No comments:
Post a Comment