“恭喜春节发财”——写着这样几个字的横幅看上去有些奇怪，它为什么强调在春节期间发财呢？原来，大量悬挂这种横幅的是美国的各大赌场及其酒店。2月13日，美国拉斯韦加斯的《赌城时报》报道称，威尼斯酒店及其赌场将以传统方式迎接中国新年。大年三十和初一的下午，酒店组织舞龙表演、放鞭炮。一群舞者和音乐家将在大厅表演并祝大家新年行好运。威尼斯酒店的负责人说，这是该酒店连续第七年庆祝中国新年了，规模一年比一年大，今年达到了顶峰。在吸引中国赌客的同时，美国赌博公司还将世界上最大的赌场开到了澳门，并积极参与对中国周边国家赌场的投资。有学者称，与中国人境外赌博相关的洗钱、贪污等问题越来越严峻，如不及时采取措施，后果将不堪设想。: S6 U4 _) N. G
: L4 ^( {: R1 i3 y 2 V. S' D5 w6 V. H+ Z' ` 0 ]" Z) K Q; ^2 ?8 ~Chinese New Year is one of the most profitable times of the year for Las Vegas casinos like the Venetian, which featured a dragon dance Saturday., k$ T5 R7 |7 J1 I* s7 }
- S! D( y$ v, h$ k* JLAS VEGAS, Feb. 20 — Zhu Yu was not the least perturbed that faux Italian frescoes — rather than Asian silk screens — decorated the ceiling of the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino hallway where he and his family watched on Saturday as a 25-foot-long red-and-yellow dragon shimmied through a traditional Chinese New Year dance.' j3 w- P" f ?$ r }3 E9 m
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“Oh, it’s nothing like what we did when I was a boy in Taipei, but it’s still very exciting,” Mr. Zhu, 49, said over the din of drumbeats as the dragon paused to send good luck in the direction of those inside the high-limit baccarat room. His three daughters, all younger than 10, stood mesmerized in front of his wife. 1 I0 Z3 i g6 r j5 S# T, r' `: I& t6 O' l3 a3 I3 F8 D
It was the Zhu family’s fourth straight year ushering in Chinese New Year in Las Vegas instead of in their home city, San Francisco. Their stop at the Venetian’s dragon dance was followed by a visit to a similar one in the pirate’s cove outside the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino on Sunday, the first day of the Year of the Pig, and another dragon dance Monday, this one at the Roman-themed Caesars Palace.5 Q$ S" ~- w. o) |* r) ] _0 k* h
Y6 E9 L& Z/ z V3 }“This is a Las Vegas version of Chinese New Year,” Mr. Zhu said. “It’s its own thing, but we love it.” $ K: D3 t5 m0 `( B' b' E3 X5 V s. m9 b9 u: l
So do casino executives. Chinese New Year, a 15-day celebration that is set by a lunar calendar and that usually falls in late January or early February, has become one of the city’s most profitable events, drawing thousands of Asian and Asian-American visitors and hundreds of millions of their dollars each year. 0 C' _+ } |) d6 ~1 t% ` 2 g ]% S" t. `# i, R, D/ p3 ZThe city’s tourism board does not keep statistics on the event’s economic impact, but executives with Las Vegas Sands Inc., which owns the Venetian, say more money is bet during the two-week period than at any other time during the year. “The Chinese New Year is longer than anything,” said the company’s president and chief operating officer, William P. Weidner, “and we see much higher per-player action.” 1 P; s- o: o' c) V % l, ?9 c! d5 ]% w* G4 U1 dJ. Terrence Lanni, chief executive of MGM Mirage, the city’s largest gambling company with nine properties on the Strip, including the Bellagio and Mirage resorts, said that for his company, the first weekend of Chinese New Year was the second-biggest betting weekend of the year, ahead of the Super Bowl and behind only the conventional New Year’s holiday. (Gamblers in Las Vegas wagered $93 million on last month’s Super Bowl, the Nevada Gaming Control Board reported.) ]# j/ B: M/ q; K$ |# Z: T& }
5 u( Z% [% Y( H! w: H% rCasinos drape enormous banners with New Year’s greetings in Chinese across their porte-cocheres and add tables for baccarat and pai gow poker, two games favored by Asian gamblers. They hold parties where managers hand invited guests red envelopes stuffed with money or special gambling chips adorned with the animal symbol of the year. At Caesars Palace, Celine Dion and Elton John are given a few days off so that Jacky Cheung, the Canto-pop sensation, can hold forth in the 4,100-seat Colosseum.& g. F0 s. t$ B5 Q+ L* @
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Most Chinese restaurants on the Strip stay open longer and add traditional New Year’s dishes or rename some regular ones with lucky or upbeat words. It is not unusual for a family to spend more than $20,000 for a Chinese New Year dinner, said Richard Chen, the executive chef at the Wing Lei restaurant in the Wynn Las Vegas resort, which has imported abalone at $2,226 a pound and bird’s nest at $1,600 a pound for this year’s festivities.5 G" r4 L: o% I- U, x( `
% M" Z* T8 E7 R9 P& E- R7 E+ cAt the Bellagio, the theme of the 14,000-square-foot Conservatory is changed only five times a year, and Chinese New Year is one of those times. The current display features live tangerine trees, a 45-foot-tall pagoda, and a mechanical pig with a moving eyes, tail and snout.0 L; ^- Z, b$ Y- e# n J% _
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“You’ll see a lot of Chinese lanterns hanging in groups of six because multiples of six are lucky numbers,” said the Conservatory manager, Sharon Hatcher. “Everything here are multiples of six or eight, because those are the lucky numbers. Even the number of koi we have in our pond are multiples of eight. We want to maintain as much positive energy for luck.” k- V" i! g+ e. B5 W% F
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Such nods to Asian culture came as hard-learned lessons for Las Vegas properties, which now employ feng shui masters to advise on design and building plans. When the MGM Grand HotelsCasino opened in 1993, patrons walked through a main entrance built to resemble the mouth of a mammoth lion, MGM’s longtime corporate symbol. This incensed Asian gamblers, who complained — and stayed away — because the notion of walking into the mouth of a beast is considered unlucky. The company spent millions removing the lion and reconfiguring the entrance, said Alan Feldman, a spokesman for MGM Mirage.$ g6 v. w% Q# _* S
* u5 L& w8 ~- p1 w5 ?“Everyone has stories about things like that,” Mr. Feldman said. “Over at the Mirage we built a high-limit gaming area that looked like a library. The Chinese word for book sounds like lose so books have an unlucky connotation. Those books were gone within the hour.” " e# V ]/ j$ \. X2 J " d' _0 o. @9 K& A# rWhile the notion of traveling to Las Vegas for a major cultural event historically known as a time for family gatherings may seem sacrilegious, David Huang, whose tour company, Chinese Hosts, is based here, said the trend reflected a newfound desire among younger, upwardly mobile Asians and Asian-Americans to travel while maintaining an important tradition of the holiday: gambling./ t) m, i* {0 S
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“The Chinese New Year has always been a time for people to get together and play games, to celebrate good luck and good fortune,” Mr. Huang said. “People like to get together and spend substantial amounts of money. Vegas helps keep up the tradition.” " x' O$ P* A5 T$ `+ ?* P8 `$ x$ G4 {9 P* Q+ E
Las Vegas’s ties to Asia have grown more extensive over the last decade with MGM Mirage, Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts all spending billions on lavish hotel-casinos in the Chinese region of Macau. In 2004, Nevada opened a tourism office in Beijing. And both the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the Community College of Southern Nevada have or are building satellite campuses in China and Singapore." V9 j5 ~1 \8 E9 y$ u4 m
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“Growing up in Las Vegas, we never heard about Chinese New Year,” said Bo J. Bernhard, a sociology professor at U.N.L.V. and director of gambling research at the university’s International Gaming Institute. “There might’ve been a nod here or there and a casino host who focused on high rollers 10 years ago. But now the casino industry is being exposed to Asia in a big way, and Asia has been exposed to our casino industry, too.”: n& [1 [& \% L2 B
- v3 y% I; m y9 fThe importance of Chinese New Year to the casino industry is clear by the lengths to which properties go to court Asian gamblers during the holiday. This year’s Chinese New Year began on the Presidents’ Day weekend, typically a busy time for the city, which was also the site of the NBA All-Star Game and one of the year’s biggest conventions, the men’s apparel trade show. But Mr. Weidner said his company’s top priority was its clients, some of whom the company ferried here from Asia on its fleet of private jets. ( B; P0 F" J% X. T+ ~9 r 9 b0 @. n; }7 j8 T2 u“This is a merit system here,” Mr. Weidner said. “The highest quality players will get whatever they want. The Chinese are the highest and best quality players in the world, so they’ll have preference. We don’t care how tall you are, how short you are, how fat you are, what color you are. Green is the most important color.”
