TY - JOUR
T1 - Income inequality and gambling
T2 - A panel study in the United States (1980-1997)
AU - Bol, Thijs
AU - Lancee, Bram
AU - Steijn, Sander
PY - 2014/1/1
Y1 - 2014/1/1
N2 - While there are many studies that examine the consequences of increasing income inequality, its effects on gambling behavior have not yet been studied. In this article, we argue that income inequality increases the average expenditure on gambling. Using longitudinal state-level data for the United States (1980-1997), we estimate fixed-effects models to analyze two types of gambling expenditure: pari-mutuel betting and lottery spending. Our findings show a positive effect of increasing income inequality on lottery expenditure. For pari-mutuel betting, the result is not linear, as for higher levels of income inequality, the positive effect decreases, suggesting that the effect flattens out when the increase in income inequality is highest. We argue that there are three reasons why we find a positive effect of income inequality of gambling expenditure: increasing mobility aspirations, availability of resources in the upper part of the distribution, and status anxiety in the lower part of the distribution.
AB - While there are many studies that examine the consequences of increasing income inequality, its effects on gambling behavior have not yet been studied. In this article, we argue that income inequality increases the average expenditure on gambling. Using longitudinal state-level data for the United States (1980-1997), we estimate fixed-effects models to analyze two types of gambling expenditure: pari-mutuel betting and lottery spending. Our findings show a positive effect of increasing income inequality on lottery expenditure. For pari-mutuel betting, the result is not linear, as for higher levels of income inequality, the positive effect decreases, suggesting that the effect flattens out when the increase in income inequality is highest. We argue that there are three reasons why we find a positive effect of income inequality of gambling expenditure: increasing mobility aspirations, availability of resources in the upper part of the distribution, and status anxiety in the lower part of the distribution.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84892956698&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02732173.2014.857196
DO - 10.1080/02732173.2014.857196
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84892956698
SN - 0273-2173
VL - 34
SP - 61
EP - 75
JO - Sociological Spectrum
JF - Sociological Spectrum
IS - 1
ER -