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| MONTICELLO, N.Y. — Soon after the white coach bus pulled up on a recent Monday morning, the passengers stepped off into the frigid cold. Outside, they rushed to the nearest tree, railing, wall or grassy knoll to stash their plastic bags crammed with thermoses of rice and soup. | 纽约州蒙蒂塞洛——最近的一个周一早晨，白色长途巴士停靠后不久，乘客们在寒冷的天气里走下车。在外面，他们冲到最近的树、栏杆、墙或长满草的小山丘上，把盛着米饭和汤、用塑料袋包裹的保温瓶藏起来。 |
| With their lunches stowed away, they headed into the gleaming casino at the end of the sidewalk. | 放好午餐后，他们走进人行道尽头熠熠生辉的赌场。 |
| And so began the routine for the hundreds of older Chinese immigrants who ride the bus two hours north every morning from New York City to the Resorts World Catskills casino in Monticello, N.Y., collecting a $45 slot machine voucher with each trip. | 就这样，数百名年长的中国移民开始了他们的每日行程——每天早上从纽约市坐两小时巴士，向北前往位于纽约州蒙蒂塞洛的卡茨奇尔度假村云顶世界赌场，每次行程都能获得一张45美元的老虎机优惠券。 |
| The scene illustrated a longstanding phenomenon in the industry: people of Asian descent are among the demographics most targeted by casinos, and casino buses have been ubiquitous for decades in Chinatowns and Koreatowns across the country. With New York City set to get its first full-service casino in the coming years, and potentially three of them, Asians are expected to be a core customer base, deepening a complicated relationship the community has with casinos. | 这一场景说明了该行业长期存在的一个现象：亚裔是赌场最主要的目标人群之一，几十年来，在全国各地的华埠和韩国城，赌场巴士无处不在。未来几年，纽约市将迎来第一家提供全方位服务的赌场，而且可能会有三家，亚裔预计将成为其核心客户群，这将加深该群体与赌场之间的复杂关系。 |
| Many of the city’s older Chinese residents rely on the weekly bus routine for entertainment — and even income from selling their vouchers — as a way to deal with the isolation of living in a country where they barely speak the language. | 这座城市的许多老年中国居民每周就靠着这种坐大巴前往赌场打发时间，甚至通过出售代金券获得收入，以此应对生活在一个几乎语言不通的国家所带来的孤立感。 |
| But the constant exposure to gambling can also be a gateway to addiction and debt, exacerbated by sophisticated casino marketing and a lack of problem-gambling services for this population. Although there is limited research on the prevalence of gambling by race, studies have shown that Asian Americans are at greater risk of developing a gambling disorder than the population as a whole. | 但长期接触赌博也可能导致上瘾和负债，复杂的赌场营销和缺乏针对这一人群的赌博上瘾辅导服务会加剧这种情况。虽然关于赌博的种族流行程度研究有限，但研究表明，亚裔美国人患赌博障碍的风险高于整体人口。 |
| The effort to lure Asian gamblers will be a significant factor surrounding the casino bidding process in New York, which will begin early next year. State legislators had approved the new licenses hoping for more tax revenue and jobs, and regulators have said no decisions on casino locations will be made until “later in 2023 at the earliest.” | 吸引亚裔赌客的努力将是围绕纽约赌场招标过程的一个重要因素，该过程将于明年年初开始。州议员批准了新的许可证，希望带来更多的税收和就业机会，监管机构表示，关于赌场的地点“最早也要到2023年晚些时候”才会决定。 |
| New York City is home to about 1.2 million residents of Asian descent, the highest of any American city. During meetings with prospective business partners this year, some casino operators scoping out potential locations have cited proximity to large Chinese populations as a top consideration, according to people familiar with the meetings, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. | 纽约市有大约120万亚裔居民，是美国中亚裔人口最多的城市。据不愿透露姓名的知情人士透露，在今年与潜在商业伙伴举行的会议中，一些赌场运营商在寻找潜在地点时，把靠近大量华人作为首要考虑因素。 |
| It’s not yet clear how the expansion of casinos will affect rates of problem gambling among Asian New Yorkers. Industry experts said that any casinos in the city would have the advantage of proximity, most likely taking existing customers away from competing casinos in the region. | 目前尚不清楚赌场的扩张将如何影响亚裔纽约人的问题赌博率。业内专家表示，这座城市的任何赌场都有邻近性的优势，很可能将从该地区的竞争对手那里抢走现有的客户。 |
| Customers of Asian descent are especially important for East Coast casinos near large metropolitan areas, and New York City is “the epicenter,” said Steve Karoul, a longtime industry consultant. The bus programs began decades ago when casinos wanted to attract players who did not own cars, he said. Many casinos contract with third-party bus companies to operate the buses. | 长期从事行业咨询的史蒂夫·卡劳尔说，对于大城市附近的东海岸赌场来说，亚裔客户尤其重要，而纽约市是“中心”。他说，巴士项目始于几十年前，当时赌场希望吸引没有汽车的玩家。许多赌场与第三方巴士公司签约运营巴士。 |
| “Gaming is fairly acceptable within the Asian communities, so they are a prime target for a lot of the casinos,” Mr. Karoul said. He added that large casinos train employees to intervene if they see signs of problem gambling among Asian players. “You don’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg,” he said. | “赌博在亚裔社区是可以接受的，所以他们是很多赌场的主要目标，”卡罗尔说。他还表示，大型赌场会培训员工，让他们在发现亚裔玩家的赌博成瘾迹象时进行干预。“你不想杀鸡取卵，”他说。 |
| Many casinos have built up Asian marketing departments for decades, targeting a wide range of ethnicities and age groups. Some focus on attracting older Chinese, Korean or Vietnamese immigrants, for instance, while others also tailor their food and entertainment options to appeal to younger Asian Americans coming with their extended families, according to industry consultants. | 几十年来，许多赌场都建立了亚裔营销部门，目标群体广泛，涵盖了不同种族和年龄段的人群。据行业顾问介绍，一些赌场专注于吸引年长的中国、韩国或越南移民，还有一些赌场会调整食物和娱乐选择，以吸引年轻的亚裔美国人带着大家庭前来。 |
| Before the pandemic, some casinos flew V.I.P. gamblers in on first-class flights from cities like Singapore and Taipei. | 疫情之前，一些赌场让VIP赌客乘坐头等舱从新加坡和台北等城市飞来。 |
| But the image of the international high roller is sharply at odds with what unfolds on the gambling floor after the casino buses pour in on weekdays, carrying large groups of older immigrants living on poverty wages. | 但是国际豪赌客的形象与赌场平日的景象完全不同——大巴蜂拥而入、载着大量靠微薄工资生活的老年移民。 |
| In New York, many people ride the casino bus not to gamble but to sell the free slot machine vouchers to other players as their primary form of income. The vouchers are one of many promotions casinos use to lure customers of all races. | 在纽约，许多人乘坐赌场巴士不是为了赌博，而是把免费的老虎机代金券卖给其他玩家，作为自己的主要收入形式。这些优惠券是赌场用来吸引所有种族顾客的众多促销活动之一。 |
| Guofu Zheng, who rides the bus regularly from south Brooklyn, said in an interview from the Resorts World Catskills gambling floor that he and his wife can make $45 per trip. He did not elaborate. Casino policy prohibits customers from transferring their slots cards to other players. | 郑国富（音）经常从布鲁克林南部乘坐巴士，他在卡茨基尔名胜世界博彩大厅接受采访时表示，他和妻子每趟可以赚45美元。他未做详细说明。赌场规定禁止顾客将老虎机牌转让给其他玩家。 |
| A former restaurant worker, Mr. Zheng, who declined to give his age, said no one was willing to hire him because he no longer has the stamina for manual labor. He used to gamble more frequently at casinos in Pennsylvania and Connecticut but, at the urging of his wife, has limited himself these days to low-stakes slot machines, he said. | 拒绝透露年龄的郑国富曾在餐馆工作，他说没有人愿意雇用他，因为他已经没有能力从事体力劳动了。他说，他以前经常去宾夕法尼亚州和康涅狄格州的赌场赌博，但在妻子的敦促下，这些日子他只玩低赌注的老虎机。 |
| Going to the casino made it possible for him to meet other Chinese immigrants from his native Fujian Province and to walk around the woods on the property, allowing him to “be happy for a bit,” he said in Mandarin. | 去赌场让他有机会认识其他来自老家福建的中国移民，还能在赌场的树林里散步，让他“高兴一点”，他用普通话说。 |
| “As you get older, staying at home is very lonely,” said Mr. Zheng, sipping a free plastic cup of red wine handed out by a casino hostess. | “随着年龄增长，呆在家里会很孤独，”郑国富一边说，一边喝着赌场女服务员递给他的用塑料杯装着的免费红酒。 |
| In a statement, Peter Chan, the vice president of international marketing at the Resorts World Catskills, said the casino took “great pride in providing our guests from the Asian community a beautiful environment and welcoming space inside and outside of our property, where our culture is respected and celebrated.” | 卡茨基尔名胜世界国际营销副总裁彼得·陈（音）在声明中表示，该赌场“为来自亚裔社区的客人提供优美的环境和温馨空间感到非常自豪，我们的文化在这里得到尊重和弘扬”。 |
| Last year, a report funded by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission found that the stress and social isolation experienced by working-class Asian immigrants made them more susceptible to casino advertising, raising concerns about whether casinos were exploiting a vulnerable population. | 去年，麻省博彩委员会资助的一份研究报告发现，工薪阶层亚裔移民所经历的压力和社会孤立使他们更容易受到赌场广告的影响，这引发了对于赌场是否在剥削弱势群体的担忧。 |
| After interviewing 40 people from Cambodian, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese communities in the Boston region, the writers of the report said that casino gambling gave immigrants in low-wage jobs a “false sense of accomplishment.” Even as many of the people surveyed said they had borrowed money from friends or loan sharks to keep gambling, they also said casinos were the only entertainment option accessible to them. | 在采访了波士顿地区柬埔寨、中国、韩国和越南社区的40人后，该报告作者称，赌场赌博给从事底薪工作的移民一种“虚假的成就感”。尽管许多受访者说，他们曾向朋友或高利贷借钱继续赌博，但他们也表示，赌场是他们唯一可以得到的娱乐方式。 |
| “For many Asian seniors, they walk into any casino and don’t need to worry about cultural competence or respect or language,” said Don Lee, the chairman of Homecrest Community Services, which operates two senior centers in Brooklyn. “That’s the one place where they feel safe.” | “对于很多亚洲老年人来说，只要走进赌场，就不用担心文化水平、尊重或者语言的问题，”松柏之家社区服务中心李宗宝说，该公司在布鲁克林经营着两家老年人中心。“那是令他们感到安全的地方。” |
| A longtime casino bus driver in New York City, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, described in an interview in Cantonese the mind-numbing effect of seeing the same riders on his bus for years. | 一名在纽约市常年驾驶赌场巴士的司机在接受采访时用广东话描述了他多年来在自己的巴士上见到同一批乘客的麻木感。由于担心丢掉工作，他要求匿名。 |
| Some of his passengers return to New York City at night, he said, only to board another bus bound for casinos in Pennsylvania. Since the pandemic started, the riders, some of whom are undocumented, have increased their reliance on casinos, he said, because stringent travel restrictions have prevented them from visiting friends and family back home in China. | 他说，一些乘客会在晚上返回纽约市，但只是为了乘坐另一辆巴士前往宾夕法尼亚州的赌场。自疫情以来，他说，这些乘客（其中一些人是非法入境）愈发沉迷赌场，因为严格的旅行限制导致他们无法回中国老家探亲。 |
| On a recent Monday, shortly after 8 a.m., a white coach bus parked on the edge of Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood, one of at least a dozen buses departing from heavily Chinese neighborhoods in New York City that day. Every seat was full, almost entirely with repeat customers. “I ride this bus everyday,” one man said in Cantonese as he boarded. A woman whom the riders referred to as a tour guide stood at the entrance, collecting the $20 bus fare. | 最近一个周一，早上8点刚过，一辆白色大巴停在曼哈顿华埠附近，当天至少有12辆这样的大巴从纽约市华人聚居区出发。大巴车上座无虚席，几乎都是熟客。“我每天都搭这辆巴士，”一位男性在上车时用广东话说。一位被乘客称为导游的女性站在车门处收取20美元的车票钱。 |
| As the bus departed, the tour guide walked to the back. “Don’t talk, don’t take off your shoes and don’t eat,” she said in Mandarin. | 大巴出发后，导游走到车尾。“不要讲话，不要脱鞋，也不要吃东西，”她用普通话说。 |
| For the passengers, the destination was not known as the Resorts World Catskills, but as “yun ding.” The translation means “top of the clouds,” evoking the aspirations of the bus riders. | 在这些乘客眼里，他们的目的地并不是叫卡茨基尔名胜世界赌场，而是叫“云顶”。这样的翻译也反应了这些巴士乘客的愿望。 |
| After the two-hour ride, the passengers lined up inside the casino to get the $45 vouchers loaded onto their Resorts World play cards. | 两小时的车程后，乘客们在赌场里排队领取45美元的代金券，放到他们的度假世界储值卡上。 |
| On the gambling floor, the baccarat tables immediately filled up. One woman put $600 down in cash, as another player, carefully flipping over the cards she was dealt, complained loudly in Mandarin that the casino’s hot sauce was not good. | 赌场内的百家乐赌台顿时坐满了人。一名女士下了600美元现金，另一名玩家则小心翼翼地翻开手里的牌，用普通话大声抱怨赌场的辣酱不好吃。 |
| There were televisions broadcasting Chinese news stations throughout the casino, attracting a crowd of people watching intently for updates about the war in Ukraine. Many people sat at the slot machines without playing, chatting with each other in various dialects from southern China. | 整个赌场都有电视在播放中国的新闻频道，吸引了一大群人聚精会神地观看关于乌克兰战争的最新消息。许多人就坐在老虎机前不玩，用中国南方的各种方言聊天。 |
| In interviews, the casino-goers said they had read in Chinese newspapers that a casino might open in New York City. One man named Mr. Zhang, who asked to be identified only by his last name, was thrilled at the prospect of a shorter casino commute but said he would still go occasionally to the Catskills property for the scenery. | 在采访中，这些去赌场的人表示，他们在中文报纸上看到纽约市可能要开一家赌场的消息。不愿透露名字的张先生对于前往赌场的通勤时间可能缩短感到期待，但他表示，自己仍会偶尔到卡茨基尔的赌场来看看风景。 |
| Mr. Zhang, 56, said he lost $70,000 gambling last year, prompting him to play more in the hopes of winning it back. He immigrated six years ago from Beijing, where he worked as a calligraphy teacher, but is now unemployed, he said. He rides the bus weekly from his home in south Brooklyn to play baccarat and other games. | 56岁的张先生说，他去年赌博输了7万美元，这次刺激他赌得更厉害，希望能赢回来。他说曾在北京做书法老师，六年前移民至此，现在失业了。他每周从布鲁克林南部的家中乘赌场巴士去玩百家乐和其他游戏。 |
| He pulled out his platinum Resorts World card, saying he was prepared to stop gambling once he played enough to obtain a black card, the highest status. | 他掏出自己在度假世界的白金卡，说等玩够了，拿到黑卡——也就是最高会员等级——他就准备戒赌。 |
| “If only I could win a little bit every time I came,” Mr. Zhang said in Mandarin. “How great would that be?” | “要是每次来玩都能赢一点就好了，”张先生用普通话说。“那该有多好。” |
| During lunchtime, the outside perimeter of the casino filled with people slurping up the steaming bowls of food they had stashed away earlier — because the casino prohibited outside food. | 午餐时间，赌场外围挤满了人，对着早些时候被他们藏起来（因为赌场禁止外带食物）的热气腾腾的饭菜狼吞虎咽。 |
| Some bus riders opted out of the casino altogether, setting up dueling card games outside on wooden planks that attracted a crowd of onlookers. | 一些巴士乘客则根本不进赌场，在赌场外拿木板当桌子玩起了决斗纸牌游戏，吸引了一群围观者。 |
| When it was time to return to the city around 3 p.m., passengers began streaming back to the bus. As one woman walked to the casino exit, she stuck her hand into a crevice in the wall, where she had hidden a plastic soup container. | 下午3点左右，到了返回市区的时间，乘客们陆陆续续回到了巴士。当一位女士走向赌场出口，她把手伸进墙上的一个缝隙，那里藏了一个塑料汤碗。 |
| On the bus home, the sunset cascaded over the riders, some of whom were counting wads of cash. The tour guide walked down the aisle, collecting money from anyone who wanted to buy another bus ticket. Her plastic bag quickly filled with $20 bills. “I’ll be back in two days,” one rider said in Mandarin. | 在回家路上，落日余晖笼罩着这些乘客，其中一些人正在清点一叠叠的现金。导游走过通道，向任何想再买一张车票的人收取费用。她的塑料袋很快就装满了20美元的钞票。“我两天后回来，”一位乘客用普通话说。 |
| The next morning, the bus would leave from the same corner in Chinatown, and the routine would start again. | 第二天一早，这辆巴士将从华埠的同一个街角驶出，同样的旅程也将周而复始。 |
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