Mass. Commission Seeks Audit on Casino Targeting of Asian Communities

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has initiated an audit into casino marketing and outreach practices within the state’s Asian communities. This action follows reports alleging targeted predatory practices by major New England casinos, contributing to gambling disorders.

What Happened

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) issued a request for a response last week to conduct an audit of gambling within the state’s Asian communities, according to The Boston Globe. The audit aims to determine if marketing and outreach efforts by casinos in these populations are predatory. This decision by the MGC occurs months after a Globe investigation suggested that major New England casinos, including Encore Boston Harbor, Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods Resort Casino, and Bally’s Twin River, are targeting individuals of Asian descent, reportedly contributing to gambling disorders and generating significant profits for the $4 billion regional casino industry (The Boston Globe).

The pursuit of this audit was previously recommended years ago in a report commissioned and funded by the MGC. Ben Hires, chief executive of the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, whose organization contributed to the 2021 report, emphasized the importance of data collection through this audit to inform policymaking (The Boston Globe).

Key Details

• The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) initiated the audit with a request for response issued last week (The Boston Globe).
• The audit’s objective is to examine casino marketing and outreach within Asian communities for predatory practices, and to assess the MGC’s role in regulating such activities (The Boston Globe).
• Local marketing tactics reportedly include large billboards in Chinatown advertising Hong Kong and Taiwan pop stars performing at casinos, free casino shuttles from Boston’s Chinatown Gate, frequent postcards, advertisements in Asian-language newspapers, and booths at cultural festivals (The Boston Globe).
• A Globe investigation earlier this year found that Encore’s 32-seat buses arrive 52 times daily near the Chinatown gateway, while Bally’s Twin River operates a 60-seat bus multiple times a day through Chinatown and other Greater Boston areas with high Asian populations like Dorchester, Quincy, North Quincy, and Malden (The Boston Globe).
• Analysis of shuttle routes combined with Census tract data reportedly showed that Encore and Bally’s shuttles stop in areas where over 40 percent of the population is of Asian descent (The Boston Globe).
• According to The Boston Globe, Asian Americans represent a disproportionate percentage of patrons sued by casinos for unpaid debts; for instance, over 80 percent of those sued by Encore for gambling debts since 2019 are reportedly of Asian descent.

Why It Matters

This audit by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission marks a regulatory response to ongoing concerns about casino marketing practices in specific demographic groups, as highlighted by continuous investigative reporting. The move signals a potential reevaluation of regulatory oversight concerning advertising and customer acquisition strategies within the regulated gambling market (The Boston Globe). The stated goal is to provide data that could inform policy decisions, reflecting a focus on equitable practices and potentially addressing problem gambling within targeted communities, rather than broad market expansion (The Boston Globe).

What’s Next

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s audit request was posted on July 1. Following the identification of a researcher, the study will be conducted, and a report developed, subject to peer review. This report will subsequently be presented to the commission (The Boston Globe). Thomas Mills, a spokesman for the MGC, stated the agency is committed to research that informs Massachusetts policymaking. The MGC’s research agenda for fiscal year 2027 is estimated at $2.7 million (The Boston Globe). The commission also noted it will be “mindful of the First Amendment” when formulating policy (The Boston Globe). However, the MGC’s jurisdiction does not extend to operators licensed in other states, leaving it unclear how it might address marketing efforts originating from out-of-state entities such as Bally’s, Mohegan, or Foxwoods (The Boston Globe).

Originally reported by The Boston Globe·Published 8 Jul 2026, 15:46