Spending Power

India’s middle class- those with annual disposable incomes between US$4,380 and US$21,890 – has more than doubled to 50 million in the past decade, according to McKinsey & Co., the New York based consulting firm.

At least a small part of that discretionary spending seems to be going not just on innovations such as Tata Motor’s new Rs100,000 (US$2500) town car, but on unregulated, unlicensed and mostly untaxed, sin.

The problem with the moral hazard argument as far as gaming is concerned is that vice including prostitution and drug taking have been an ever present if scarcely acknowledged part of Indian society for centuries, in common with most human cultures.

Inside Asian Gaming (Feb 2008)

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