philadelphia facing another fight over a market street casino?

Here's yet another wrinkle in the ongoing saga of the Philadelphia Asian community's struggle with casinos and the predatory gaming industry... Last week, a gambling industry executive testified before the Pennsylvania Gaming Commission that Philadelphia's high population of Asians and "Slavs" who like "the gambling" are the primary reason the city can host more casinos.

Wait, am I reading that right? At the very least, you have to hand it to the guy for being honest. It's no secret that the gambling industry aggressively targets the Asian community, and this casino exec seems to be openly embracing this fact. Helen Gym lays it out in this blog post for Young Philly Politics: Does City Hall endorse racial profiling by advocating for a Market Street casino - AGAIN?

I have to give it up to you Mr. DiVergilis, gambling industry rep, for your brutal honesty in laying out the cold reality of the predatory gambling industry. You’re hardly wrong to be baffled by anyone’s naivete about your industry’s success in free-range racial profiling. In an investor phone call, Steve Wynn cited the proximity of “a Vietnamese neighborhood” as one of the reasons he contemplated (for a nanosecond) taking over the failed Foxwoods project. Sugarhouse is advertising for an Asian Marketing Executive whose primary job is to “attract an Asian player base to the property.” Earlier this month, Sugarhouse filed a request with the Gaming Commission to create an “Asian themed room” with a noodle bar.

So if there’s little pretense about the fact that the gambling industry has its sights set on the Asian community, explain to me why the City not only continues to endorse that industry but enable it by advocating a casino return to Market Street.

Opening a casino on Market Street would put it right next to Chinatown -- that's not a f@#king coincidence. Could the concerned citizens of Philadelphia be facing yet another fight against a proposed casino? They've already gone a round over this issue. They will fight it again. Read more about the community's anti-predatory gambling efforts at the Asian Americans United website here.