A state that provides some sort of assistance to the most needy in society. I realize that most countries, if not all, have some sort of government policies in regards to that. As far as I know there are no "pure capitalist" countries, not even the US. But what I was arguing is not a specific economic model, but the level of disposable income and the share of population that have access to that disposable income. And again, looking at it from the perspective of the gambling industry, what would be best for them? I have lived both in Italy and the UK and I have noticed that gambling has been very strong during times when there have been strong welfare policies in place. In Italy, for example, the largest growth of the gambling industry has happened when the previous government introduced "reddito di cittadinanza", some sort of universal citizen's income. The present Meloni administration has done away with it 3 years ago. At first gambling seemed to remain steady, thanks to the creation of new jobs, but now we are starting to see signs of weakness. In sports betting, for example, this past september there has been 25% less money gambled compared to september 2024, and september is a big test for the local betting industry, because it's when most major soccer leagues (where most of the money is wagered) have got underway.
Again, I'm aware that the perfect scenario would be an all together strong economy with no unemployment and all the population having disposable income. And I wasn't talking about any country in particular. We may talk about the US here because it's where the large majority of you guys live. I'm very aware about how hard the gambling companies fought to get back in the US market, to make betting legal in many states and all that, but I believe that it's mainly due to the sheer size of the market there.
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