Familiarity breeds contempt

According to a study by Hong Kong Polytechnic University, local casino workers have an ingrained negative opinion of Mainland China gamblers By Fátima Almeida* When it’s time to bet, all gamblers from greater China – Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong – have identical behaviour but in all other aspects surrounding the gaming experience the differences are clear, according to local casino workers. Croupiers and associated workers say they’re able to identify the origin of gamblers just by observing them. Their attitude, a study claims, often reveals a “negative perception towards Mainland China patrons”, a segment that actually represents the lion’s share of gaming revenues. This is one of the conclusions of a study conducted by Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which included face-to-face interviews with over 300 croupiers, supervisors and other gaming hall staff in 33 different Macau casinos, focusing on the differences between Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan players. The study lasted throughout 2013, with the results just published on the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) site. Taking into account the animosity projected by casino workers, investigators believe that ‘understanding the sub-cultural differences may help casinos and hotel operators better handle client behaviour, as well as designing efficient marketing strategies that correspond to different cultural groups’. The study concluded that despite Chinese gamblers from different regions being ‘similar in appearance’, casino workers ‘are able to recognise (the origin of clients) due to their daily interaction with them and years of working in the casinos’. Thus, casino workers say that Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China display identical behaviour when they bet, such as confirming the number of chips they receive from croupiers but, as gambling progresses, the differences become evident. Avoiding stereotypes Casino workers ‘feel that Mainland gamblers are less tidy and more rowdy of all the three groups’, while Hong Kong customers are more positive in these respects. However, casino workers are quick to point out that Hong Kong players protest more than any other and that they also ask for more perks and promotional items. Despite being more demanding in terms of service, they are regarded in a more positive light, possibly due to the fact that they more readily accept instructions from croupiers. Perceptions also indicate that Hong Kong players are more receptive to new games, while Mainlanders avoid novelties unless they get detailed information about them. By contrast, the Taiwanese are more passive and prefer to gamble alone. Observations also showed investigators the importance of avoiding stereotypes and alerted them to the dangers of the cultural generalisation of each group. The study was conducted by Wan Penny Ym King, Kim Samuel Seongseop and Elliot Statia and the authors say they are “worried with what they call the negative perception towards Mainland Chinese, since they are the main clients of Macau casinos”. In order to avoid generalisations being made of each of the groups, the study indicates that workers’ cultural sensibility should be nurtured and that orientations and rules for clients should be adopted in order to rectify the whole negative perception regarding a certain group.