Chinatown Casino Buses Maintain Appeal for Community
NEWS, SLIDER Friday, March 18th, 2011
Caesar's/Bally's casino bus ticket booth on Division St.
There may have been a decline in travel this week via casino bus following the wake of the Mohegan Sun casino bus crash this past Saturday, especially from the mentioned bus company. However, there’s definitely no shortage of other casino transportation options in Chinatown. Especially with basically free round trip transportation, a meal voucher for Asian cuisine (typically, a noodle bar) and even a gambling voucher which can be valued up to $45.
There’s the Caesar’s/Bally’s Casino bus company, one of the more popular choices because of its hourly bus departure options, with buses departing almost every hour from 9am to 1am. Its office is upstairs on 15 Division Street but most casino goers choose the convenient, walk-up window ticket vending location on 1 Division Street, where the bus driver pulls in somewhere within the Chatam Square vicinity. It is $15 for a round trip ticket with the casino’s ‘Total Rewards’ gambling card; $20 without. There’s also departure options for the ‘Brooklyn’ Chinatown, on 56th and 8th Ave and two Flushing pickups on Kissena and Barclay, Main Street and 41st Ave.
The other company with an almost-hourly bus departure is the Mohegan Sun casino bus going to the casino in Connecticut. An almost-hourly bus schedule beginning at 8:45am and its last bus departing at 11:15pm, perfect for restaurant workers who want to try their luck after their late closing shifts. The Mohegan Sun bus stop is at the corner of Bowery and Bayard Streets, where many eager casino goers wait inside the Bank of America on colder, windy nights.
However, many waiting inside the Bank may also be waiting for the numerous of other casino buses who all make Bowery Street their pick-up location.
Sands casino has two bus stops, on 26 and 98 Bowery.
Foxwoods casino has three bus stops. Bowery and Division Streets (within Confucius Plaza), 100 Bowery, and Grand St, between Forsyth & Chrystie Street (near the Grand Street B/D/F/M subway station.) Foxwoods, also departs from Brooklyn at 55th St and 8th Ave and Flushing at 40 Rd and Main St.
Tropicana is one of the older, established casino bus companies in Chinatown, with a bus leaving from 16 Bowery and Pell Streets approximately every three hours, starting at 9am until the last bus departure at 9pm.
Showboat, one of the smaller casinos in Atlantic City also has an established Chinatown bus route from Manhattan at 48 Bowery Street with two departure times, 9:30am and 8:30pm. There’s also departures from Brooklyn at 61st St and 8th Ave, departing at 9:30am and returning at 5pm. The Flushing bus stop is at 40 Rd and Prince St, departing 9:30am and returning 5pm.
In the past, casino goers would purchase the round trip tickets directly from the bus driver and receive an envelope of cash, usually in the amount of the bus ticket or more, typically $20.
However it seems casinos have seized the different opportunities to target casino goers, particularly the Chinatown community in coming back, gambling more and staying longer.
Round trip tickets were typically redeemed on the same day/night in returning to New York, but now many casino buses, like Caesar’s/Bally’s, return trip tickets are valid up to two days. And making casino goers sign up for the TotalRewards card in order to purchase tickets, allows the casinos to keep track of visitors, to offer comp’d meals and sometimes even free hotel room stays after reaching certain levels of gambling activity.
With all these incentives and many established bus schedules and routes to choose from, it’s easy to see the appeal. But with the recent news about Chinatown bus crashes and accidents, will those perks be enough to keep casino goers travelling via buses? For now it seems to be the case. Though some riders do admit to taking the precautions they can, like “only riding during the daytime,” many attributing to the bus accidents as nighttime driving impairment and dangers.
Short URL: http://blogs.aaja.org/ourchinatown/?p=740
Posted by Pearly Huang
on Mar 18 2011. Filed under NEWS, SLIDER.
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