Every morning at 9 a.m. in front of the Cathay Bank at the Asian shopping center on 65th Street, fortune hunters line up for the free shuttle bus to Thunder Valley Casino.

The burgundy shuttle will become a rolling United Nations, boarded by Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Laotians, Filipinas and on one morning last week, a handful of African Americans and whites, too.

When the shuttle pulls up, a few Chinese women spill out. "We played baccarat all night long," explained Helen Yee, 71. How did they do? "Not too good."

"Asians love to gamble," declares another Chinese woman in line.

That's something casinos already know. From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., casino shuttles and private charter buses make pickups in Asian neighborhoods throughout Northern California.

They stop in Sacramento's mini-Saigon along Stockton Boulevard or at Asian apartment complexes downtown. They ferry gamblers waiting at casino storefront offices in San Francisco's Chinatown and San Jose's Little Saigon. The free shuttles don't offer incentives like vouchers or buffet coupons, but the private charters often do – and charge their riders a portion of the $10 each gets from the casinos on arrival.

That's the way it worked on the charter that flipped over on the way to the Colusa Casino Resort Oct. 5, killing nine and drawing attention to the popularity of Indian casinos among Asians.

Several of the 41 passengers on that bus rode buses nearly every day to casinos as far away as Oroville and Jackson. All 41 were Southeast Asian – about half Iu Mien, half Hmong and two Vietnamese.

The bus trade makes up a small part of the Asian casino market, which includes high rollers from the Silicon Valley as well as New York, China, Taiwan and Japan.

Cache Creek Casino Resort enjoyed its best day ever last Aug. 8 – also the start of the Beijing Olympics – because Chinese consider 8 the luckiest number and 8-8-8 the most auspicious day. Many Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians influenced by Chinese culture share that belief.

"We broke the record for everything – profits, customers," said David Li, Cache Creek's top host for Asian customers. "The number 8 is ba in Mandarin, almost the same as fa, which means fortune." The words eight and fortune also are similar in Cantonese: "baat and faat."

Li, who recently hosted a Moon Cakes Festival for high rollers at the Capay Valley casino, said, "Chinese culture is part of Cache Creek casino culture, and right now we try to make Filipino culture part of our culture." Li expects another giant bonanza on 9-9-9, because Filipinos consider nine the luckiest number.

Asian high rollers tend to be Chinese and Vietnamese, "while you'll see more Filipinos play slot machines," Li said.

Though Asian Americans constitute about 11 percent of the 2.1 million people in the greater Sacramento metropolitan area, casino officials say they account for about 50 percent of the customers at Cache Creek and Thunder Valley resorts.

Neither casino would disclose how much Asian gamblers contribute to their profits, but both resorts gross over $300 million a year, and Thunder Valley is considered the third most successful casino in the United States. Officials at both casinos acknowledge Asians are a big part of their success.

Some experts believe Asian patrons make up more than half of casino customers. "It's closer to 75 percent at Cache Creek," estimated Dr. Timothy P. Fong, director of Asian American Studies at California State University, Sacramento.

"There is tremendous targeted marketing for this demographic," Fong said. "They do cater to an Asian audience at both Cache Creek and Thunder Valley."

The resorts have multilingual dealers, slot clerks, pit bosses and casino hosts, classy Asian restaurants, an array of Asian dishes in their buffets and even slots with Chinese characters.

They attract huge Asian crowds around their Fortune Pai Gow games and baccarat tables.

Fong attributes the popularity of gaming among Asians to tradition and successful marketing. Though gambling dates back nearly 5,000 years to ancient China "and there's a history of gambling among Asian Americans primarily in the early days of immigration after the Gold Rush," he said, "I don't think it's in our blood."

Call The Bee's Stephen Magagnini, (916) 321-1072. Bee staff writer Phillip Reese and researchers Sheila A. Kern and Pete Basofin contributed to this story.