More on the New Casino Economy

The Okiedoke Blog has a piece about one of the fired Dayton Tire Plant workers winning $280,000 at a local casino. A comment there makes the same point I made earlier about our new Casino Economy. That is to say: workers feel like they have a better chance of success playing at a casino than they do working at a job -- even though they know the odds are in the house's favor. The commenter at Okiedoke, however, linked it to Oklahoma history: pointing out Oklahoma's historically depressed (and suppressed) wages lead to Okies feeling as though traditional values of thrift and the work ethic don't create as much opportunity for success as gambling.