Betting on poverty : a comparative study between Barcelona and Madrid

Abstract

The debate about increasing gambling is in the spotlight of the whole society. At the same time, several drives join together to claim for a tighter regulation in view of the raising amount of compulsive gamblers. Our article seeks to reveal the existence of a significant impact of household income on the location decision of betting houses within neighborhoods and whether or not spatial autocorrelation between them plays a big role. Enclosing Barcelona and Madrid as study areas, our analysis shows an inverse relationship between the number of betting houses per neighborhood and the economic status of its residents, but levels of significance differ across cities. Thus, this study aims to understand the contrast of results among them, identifying regulatory framework as a potential distinguishing element.