Little Saigon slaphouse culture blends gambling, meth

ocregister.com ^ | Sept. 3, 2016 | CHRIS HAIRE

[Pelham]

LITTLE SAIGON – Las Vegas casinos employ a deceptive bargain: They offer free drinks to gamblers, knowing the booze will impair judgment and loosen wallets.

The latest incarnation of underground gambling in Little Saigon takes a harsher tack – free meth.

Gambling has long been endemic in the Vietnamese American community in Orange County, a thinly veiled cultural touchstone. Friends and family gather at houses to win one another’s money during the Lunar New Year. Indian tribes’ casinos set up booths at Little Saigon festivals to lure potential customers to their establishments. For years, the so-called bikini coffee shops in Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Westminster attracted Vietnamese American men not only with scantily clad women, but also with computer gambling – until the police cracked down on the cafes.

But in recent years, as cities have enacted a series of regulations against nudity, indoor smoking and gambling, a new phenomenon has swept into Little Saigon – slaphouses.

The euphemistic name belies slaphouses’ dark nature. Clouds of methamphetamine and cigarette smoke hang in the air. Patrons, many elderly Vietnamese men and women, gamble with credits bought after hawking jewelry or electronics in makeshift pawn shops set up inside garages. Younger Vietnamese men, often gang members, carry weapons for protection, including the occasional machete. Prostitution and assault are common.

Slaphouses in the past openly flouted the law, operating as makeshift, extra-rowdy house parties, blaring loud music and wooing customers who left a trail of needles and crack pipes in the neighborhood. They flew under the radar because other residents in sleepy, primarily minority-dominated residential areas, either fear the gangs or distrust the police or both.

Now, police say, operators are more discreet. Police efforts to shut down slaphouses can play out like a game of anti-gambling whack-a-mole: Warrants are served

[Pelham]

the dark side of Little Saigon

[stellaluna]

I’m surprised this even got published.

[Pelham]

It is a surprise. OC’s Vietnamese community is pretty secretive about things like this.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Asians are all closet gambling addicts, especially when they get older. You probably don't want to see pictures of the gamblers.

But Googling "Vietnamese coffee shops Orange County" returns some decent visuals. :)

[webheart]

Vegas doesn’t give free drinks to loosen wallets. Those drinks are weak. What they do is offer you a drink while you are playing, then take forever to get the drink to you, so that you will stay at the same spot for a longer time. You will lose more money and you will get only a slight buzz for your trouble.

Now maybe in the past it worked the way they said, but that was before liability lawsuits and high taxes on alcohol. It is cheaper to give free drinks with long wait times and wait you out. The return on investment is better than getting their customers all drunk on Grey Goose.

[Jack Black]

Diversity is our strength.

[JimSEA]

East Asia, including Southeast Asia has traditionally had a big gambling problem. Thailand mixes gambling and Ya Ba (meth). Very destructive of families as it usually is a male addiction. Wealthy one day, destitute and addicted the next.