The few times I've been to a casino, I was really surprised by the crowd. It wasn't exactly Casino Royale. Just a lot of people who came off as lower class to me (clothing, speech, mannerisms, etc) and/or retirees, who also weren't exactly living it up. Heck, I even saw a woman slyly shove a $5 prime rib into her purse for later. The entire steak too, and without a ziplock or anything. She just shoved it in there to eat later. She was also wearing a bedazzled sweater with a pair of dice. I suspect a lot of these people end up identifying with a 'casino lifestyle.'
There was also something depressing about the slot machines that had cute cartoon characters on them. I wonder what the emotional and intellectual age of the people playing are. They seemed more like children who have yet to have the maturity and education to understand risk and financial security than adults.
>This industry is highly regulated
I imagine its regulated like most regulations in the USA: by the whims of the industry itself. They'll tolerate gambling hotlines and will fund them because ultimately that keeps real regulation away. The same way cigarette makers tolerated labels but, of course, were never pulled from store shelves.