Poverty industry

The terms poverty industry or poverty business refer to a wide range of money-making activities that attract a large portion of their business from the poor because they are poor. Businesses in the poverty industry often include payday loan centers, pawnshops, rent-to-own centers, casinos, liquor stores, lotteries, tobacco stores, and credit card companies. Illegal ventures such as loansharking, drug-dealing or prostitution might also be included. The poverty industry makes roughly US$33 billion a year in the United States. In 2010, elected American federal officials received more than $1.5 million in campaign contributions from poverty industry donors.