Who gambles the most?
I believe it's the lower-class and upper-class who gamble the most, not the middle-class. (By the way, when I say 'upper-class' I mean people who are really up there; say the top 10% of the population.)
The lower-class gambles because they are more willing to take a risk than the middle-class or the upper-class. They don't have much to lose, and if they win, it will be relatively A LOT to them. Also, the lower-class is more likely to be superstitious and rely on luck too much, making them wanting to gamble.
The upper-class, on the other hand, has the LEAST marginal value for money. Bill Gates loses $100 in Las Vegas one night? Big deal. The upper-class is more likely to gamble for social/entertainment reasons.
But the middle-class, they don't gamble as much as the lower-class or the upper class. It's because their lives won't change much even they win some. At the same time, they don't have enough money to throw away at casinos. It's no wonder lawyers and doctors don't gamble.
So I guess it could be true that casinos take money away from the poor, but would casinos locate themselves in poor neighborhoods? I don't know.
Also, when the local economy is down, politicians seem to think that legalizing casinos is one way to bring the economy up.
I'm interested in other people's thoughts on this topic.
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