https://apps.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/metro/losing-bet/asian-communities-fight-back-gambling/
By Chris Serres and Danny McDonald, Globe Staff Mable Chan, Globe Correspondent
Published March 24, 2026
In Lowell, home to the nation’s second-largest Cambodian community with at least 15,000 residents, community members have been alarmed by the recent opening of several smaller casinos just across the state line in New Hampshire. The newest, The Nash Casino in Nashua, features a bevy of card tables with Asian games. It announced its opening last March with a prominent ad in Lowell’s Khmer-language newspaper.
At last summer’s Lowell Folk Festival, scores of Cambodian Americans lined up for gambling vouchers, T-shirts, and other freebies handed out by casino workers at booths erected just feet from a stage where traditional Cambodian performers danced and sang.
Fearing a rise in gambling addiction, the nonprofit Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association has recently gone on the offensive, organizing gambling-prevention forums and distributing fliers at community events. Riverbend, a Lowell-based addiction treatment provider, employs the state’s only two gambling specialists who are fluent in Khmer; this year, the agency has been sending them into local schools and senior homes to educate people about the potential harms of gambling and the warning signs of addiction.
On a Saturday morning in late October, two dozen people, mostly Cambodian immigrants, filed into a community center in Lowell for a public forum on problem gambling – the first organized by the Khmer community. An older man described nearly losing his home after gambling the money for his mortgage payment at a nearby casino. Another said he was struggling with loss of sleep after racking up $7,000 in gambling losses. Speaking in Khmer, a mental health counselor warned against “chasing losses” – escalating bets in the vain hope of winning back lost money.
“Many in our community see the casinos as a way to get rich fast, and they have no idea how to stop” gambling, said Sophanna Toh, a Cambodian American clinician specializing in drug and gambling addiction at Riverbend. “We’re here to show them how to stop.”
At many of these events, Asian community members are now being screened for signs of gambling disorders.
Clipboard-wielding volunteers with seven Asian community organizations statewide are routinely greeting people as they arrive at community events from the South Shore to Springfield with three basic questions such as, “During the past 12 months, have you tried to keep your family or friends from knowing how much you gambled?” Those who answer yes to any of the questions are encouraged to seek help.
Nearly 1,300 people have filled out the questionnaire since the project began two years ago – making it among the most extensive problem-gambling screening effort in state history, according to state officials who helped organize and fund the project. About 6 percent of those surveyed tested positive for a gambling disorder, and organizers say the surveys have broadened awareness of the problem.
Yet, historically, community efforts to combat gambling within Asian communities have ebbed and flowed based on the availability of grant funding and have been difficult to sustain, advocates acknowledged.