Some metro area casinos are advertising to a small sector of the population in their native tongue - Vietnamese.

Casino officials say they are trying to reach an important customer base using their own language.

Critics say the marketing is predatory and shameful.

Observant drivers on the West Bank Expressway can see Boomtown Casino billboards printed with large Vietnamese words. The billboards, put up late last year, advertise Progressive Pai Gow, a card game casino officials say is highly popular among Vietnamese gamers.

Harrah's casino recently put up its own Asian-language billboard near the Crescent City Connection toll booths. The Harrah's billboard wishes passersby a Happy New Year in Vietnamese and Chinese.

Casino officials say they have advertised in the past to other ethnic groups, such as Hispanics, and the Vietnamese billboards are just another incarnation of foreign-language marketing.

"It's part of just our normal advertising," said Ben Gravolet, director of marketing for Boomtown. "We just kind of market to everybody as a group."

He said the Vietnamese billboards are the only non-English language billboards Boomtown has up at this time. Boomtown did not provide the exact figure it spends on marketing to Vietnamese.

The marketing tactic disturbs Samantha-Hope Atkins, executive director of HopeNetworks Inc., a nonprofit addiction support resource based in Baton Rouge. Atkins referred to the billboards as a form of predatory marketing and cultural marketing strategies.

"The Vietnamese have shown a predisposition to heavy gambling. Otherwise, why would these casinos be competing for their business?" she asked. "It's an outrage, absolute outrage. ... This is an emerging trend."

Others said gambling is widespread in Vietnamese communities.

"My understanding is that it's very much a part of the culture. It also is a problem that many families face," said Sue Weishar, director of immigration and refugee services for the Catholic Charities program of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

The ads don't surprise Weishar.

"Obviously they (the casinos) are doing this because they realize that this is a population worth targeting," she said.

John Payne, general manager of Harrah's, said the billboard is simply advertising Asian New Year, which is celebrated this month. The casino holds dragon dances and a party for the New Year celebration, he said.

When asked whether Harrah's has advertised on a billboard using an Asian language in the past, Payne said Harrah's 26 or so properties have used many different types of billboards across the country.

State laws allow casinos to advertise and market to various ethnic groups. Boomtown casino once posted Spanish-language billboards but quit after research showed many Hispanics speak English, Gravolet said.

Gravolet estimates 10% of Boomtown's customers are Asian, and most of those are Vietnamese who live on the West Bank. Boomtown has advertised specifically to Vietnamese in the past and has geared advertising to Vietnamese communities in Alabama, Texas and Mississippi, he said. He said Boomtown advertises in coastal communities with large Vietnamese populations.

Many older Vietnamese don't speak English or are more fluent in Vietnamese, he said.

"It's also a sign of respect to them that we put these billboards out in their language," he said.

The billboards are one piece of Boomtown's multifaceted marketing approach to Vietnamese gamers. He said Boomtown was the first casino in the area to advertise across the front of the magazines, then its competition followed suit.

Boomtown often sponsors free concerts featuring popular Asian singers, including one known as the Vietnamese "Little Richard" and another known as the "Britney Spears" of Vietnamese singers, Gravolet said. The concerts are free "with the hope that they'll go into the casino and play," he said.

Atkins said preying on a culture's addictions is bad business, "(but) there's absolutely no incentive to this industry to reduce their marketing," she said.

Atkins is particularly disheartened by the billions of dollars "addictive industries" such as gambling, tobacco and alcohol cost taxpayers. Treating addictions and associated costs resulted in an $8 billion bill to taxpayers in 1998, including $2 billion from gaming, she said.

Last year, more than 35,000 Louisiana residents who had asked the state for help in dealing with their addictions were turned away because of low funding, she said. Statewide, about 1,500 people on average are on a waiting list for addiction help, she said. Only 1% of the population has gambling addictions, she said.

Sam Cheung, manager of Cheung Garden restaurant in Chalmette, agreed that Asians are "serious gamblers."

"They can put a lot of money on the table," said Cheung, who said he doesn't gamble out of fear he'll be caught in a downward spiral as others have.

Marketing experts question the strategy of using a billboard to target a small portion of the population.

"Outdoor is generally thought of as purely an awareness medium. It's not typically thought of as a target medium," said Allen Bell, chief operating officer for the Idea Village, a New Orleans nonprofit that fosters entrepreneurship.

But, "marketing strategies are complex," he said. "It may have some relation to their broad media strategy that we're just not getting," he said."