Years ago I took my wife to a casino in Detroit. 5 minutes after walking in I turned to her and saw that she was crying (no joke). I asked, "what is wrong" and she responded, "it's so sad." Casinos (Detroit/Vegas and elsewhere) are sad places. The majority of the people there are wearing sweatpants, chain smoking and holding a big bucket full of quarters at a slot machine in hopes of a big pay day that will never come. I should mention that 20 minutes later my wife was getting a comp'd drink at a black jack table, was up a hundred bucks and was having the time of her life. Gambling can be a blast, but my guess is that it's not in any "local economy's" best interest.The gambling industry knows what the people want. Last year Americans gambled away $119 billion, most of it at casinos. We were far ahead of the second place contender (China lost $76 billion) and it’s a staggeringly huge increase from $10.4 billion in 1982
I'd be interested to know the socioeconomic breakdown of where that revenue comes from? Is it from the wealthy? My guess is that it falls in the 80/20 rule. 80% of the gambling revenue comes from those that can't afford to be gambling.