NEW BUFFALO | Two months after opening in southwestern Michigan, Four Winds Casino Resort is reaching into the Chicago market for customers.

A bus service got underway earlier this month, shuttling gamblers from South Side and south suburban communities, to the casino near New Buffalo.

Pick-up stops include Chinatown and the villages of Crestwood, Homewood and Countryside -- areas typically part of the Illinois and Northwest Indiana casino markets, and towns targeted by Illinois officials as ripe for growth of that state's casino industry.

Four Winds "possibly sees an untapped niche there that would gamble at Four Winds if they had an easier way of getting there," said Ed Feigenbaum, whose Indiana Gaming Insight tracks Indiana's casino industry.

"They're thrown down the competitive gauntlet," Feigenbaum said.

The bus rides are free to riders who board on Chicago's South Side and Chinatown stops. Suburban riders pay a $10 fee, but receive $10 in free-play.

Four Winds, owned by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, opened Aug. 2 to become the first tribal casino in the Northwest Indiana market, and by September appeared to have cut into business at nearby Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City.

Northwest Indiana casinos "have some of the best operators in the world," said Mike Smith, executive director of the Casino Association of Indiana.

"My guess is they'll meet the competition head-on," Smith said.

Bus services offered by the Northwest Indiana casinos range from shuttles to charters, and include a shuttle service to Blue Chip from a Michigan City stop on the South Shore rail line.