“ Vámonos!” the driver bellowed, maneuvering bus No. “ Vámonos!” a voice yelled from the back. She gossiped with other regulars about how healthy the driver, a pot-bellied man with salt-and-pepper hair and a chevron mustache, looked despite his recent surgery for colon cancer. Once at the casino, she knew she’d be receiving $35 or more in gaming credits on her casino club card.Īcross the aisle, a bespectacled, graying gentleman perused an Armenian newspaper. She forked over $20 to the man collecting the fares and plopped down amid a group of Korean seniors in the front of the nearly full bus. On a cloudless Thursday, Oh, with a tightly permed dyed hairdo and a spring in her step that makes her look younger than her age, boarded the noon bus outside a Koreatown bedding store. In January, one bus that had returned from Morongo Casino killed an elderly woman crossing the street in a hit-and-run that remains unsolved.įor the seniors who ride the buses, the service is both a blessing and a curse: a welcome distraction and pastime - an air-conditioned one for the long summer days - but at the same time a habit that seniors say can quickly become disastrous for their finances, especially for those on Social Security. The popularity has led to a clog of buses idling along Olympic Boulevard and nearby side streets, taking up parking, obstructing businesses’ views and waking residents at odd hours.įor more than a decade, city officials, police and the neighborhood council have been fielding complaints from businesses and residents but have been unable to do much more than shuffle the problem from one block to the next. The riders come from a group that is largely invisible, low-income or poor. In Koreatown, the buses have found a steady and reliable customer base in elderly immigrants, many of whom are widows or widowers living alone in senior apartments. A few years ago, one casino honored the owner of a Koreatown-based tour company for delivering her 1 millionth customer to the gambling hall. Most are run by independent bus companies that are compensated by the casinos for each customer they bring. and returning as late as 4 a.m., offering essentially free rides - after the casinos’ incentives - across Southern California. The buses depart daily, leaving as early as 6:30 a.m. Then the casino sends a coupon for a free buffet or advertises a giveaway of colorful cast iron pots, and she finds herself on the bus once more. At times, she resists going for a few weeks at a stretch. Sometimes Oh wonders how things would have turned out if she never got on that bus, never got that first taste.

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