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> ... but a lot of the "whales" are people like the ones in the article, middle class people who lose hundreds of thousands of dollars while desperately trying
by TacticalCoder 3y ago
> ... but a lot of the "whales" are people like the ones in the article, middle class people who lose hundreds of thousands of dollars while desperately trying, and ultimately failing, to stop their addiction from ruining their lives.
$4.4 m of net worth puts you in the top 1% by US standards. In the rest of the world (short of Monaco, Luxembourg and Switzerland and the likes), it's much less. For example top 1% in France means a net worth of $2m.
I find it hilarious the notion that the "middle class" would have "hundreds of thousands of dollars" of disposable income to splurge on gambling.
I'd go as far as saying that being in the top 1% in, say, France, puts you in the "rich" class, not the "middle class" and that with a net worth of $2m you do not have line of credits allowing you to bet hundreds of thousands of EUR/USD.
P.S: I was invited at some dude's place where he had this 3 meters high Jeff Koens sculpture (Ballerinas, kinda Jeff Koens' trademark), probably worth millions. He had four house employees serving coffee, cooking, etc. Reading HN I'd be tempted to believe he was actually a poor middle class chap and that only the Zuck and Gates are "rich".
- Espressosaurus 3y agoI think dkarkl's point is that it's not disposable income. Using the house HELC or emptying the retirement account to fund your gambling habit is an easy and ruinous way to get your hands on hundreds of thousands of dollars if you're middle class.
- mathgeek 3y ago> I find it hilarious the notion that the "middle class" would have "hundreds of thousands of dollars" of disposable income to splurge on gambling. Don’t forget that there’s also an entire industry looking to loan money to middle class folks.
- dasil003 3y agoI'm confused, are you just mad about the label middle class, or do you believe that the only people spending large sums on gambling can afford it and therefore there are no ethical issues in this type of business? Because you seem to be setting up a straw man bringing in a lot of talk about net worths in the millions, when the conversation was about losing "hundreds of thousands". The median net worth for a US family is $192k according to a recent Nerdwallet article, so it's absolutely in the realm of possibility that millions of Americans are vulnerable to losing hundreds of thousands to a gambling addiction. Certainly a lot of people would have their lives destroyed by losing $50k to a gambling addiction, and no doubt that happens plenty. Where we draw the line on what constitutes middle class doesn't really seem all that relevant to me.
- supertofu 3y agoThe point of the article is that those hundreds of thousands of dollars are NOT disposable income -- they are life savings and home equity loans. What a callous comment.
- carlosjobim 3y ago> I find it hilarious the notion that the "middle class" would have "hundreds of thousands of dollars" of disposable income to splurge on gambling. They get access to that money by borrowing it or embezzling it. Lots of middle class people have boring jobs with access to hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars.
- zeroonetwothree 3y agoIf you read the article, one of the persons took out a HELOC to fund their addiction. Another one blew their entire inheritance. None of that is "disposable income".