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It’s actually the opposite; more poor people have gambling problems than rich people. Here’s one source, but if you Google you will find more. https://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2014/01/001.html

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Whether this really drives the industry overall would be a separate study, though. For one, this was conducted before federal legalization, in which case the lottery and charity bingo were probably the most accessible legal forms of gambling to most people who didn't regularly travel to Las Vegas. Those are inherently poor person forms of gambling. So whether this is still true we don't know. Maybe more importantly, the volume of individuals being larger in poor neighborhood doesn't necessarily mean the volume of money is larger. Phil Mickelson was just alleged to have bet over a billion dollars over the past 30 years. Assuming something like an average of a hundred thousand is enough to be "problem gambling" for poorer people over the span of 30 years, he matched 10,000 of them just by himself. It raises the question of whether gambling is a whale-driven industry or not.

Lottery and charity gambling is a bit of an interesting thing. It's a tax on the poor but it's not as if the government won't tax the poor if you take away gambling. Governments throughout history across societies have always avoided taxing the rich as they're savvy at avoiding taxes, whereas the poor always pay.

Governments and charities have restraint that for profit businesses just don't, and free market driven competition and efficiency is NOT a good thing in this context.

Mickelson may have bet a billion dollars (if you believe the rumors spread by a convicted criminal now selling a book, likely exaggerated) but he definitely did not lose a billion. The same source says it's approaching $100 million but even that number seems inflated.

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