The Moral Economy of Gambling and the Negotiation of Minority Ethno-Class Social Positions: A Socio-Cultural Study of Lower-Income Malay-Muslim Gamblers in Singapore

Abstract

This study explores the intersections of two relatively underdeveloped themes within the stock of academic knowledge on gambling: ethnicity and class. Utilizing a ?moral economy? approach to understand gambling as a culturally normative activity, this thesis examines the social dynamics of ethnoracial minorities, namely lower-income Malay-Muslims (LIMM) operating in largely informal gambling domains that are generally Chinese-dominated. It will be argued that the social capital networks underpinning the structures of such gambling spheres consist of various ethno-class barriers that function to reproduce existing racial and social hierarchies in which LIMM gamblers occupy minority positions. Nevertheless, in engaging with the cultural structures of the ethnoracial majority, empirical data will illustrate the use of resource and impression management strategies by LIMMs to negotiate mobility within gambling-related markets of informal capital. Ultimately, it will be posited that ethno-class barriers function in tandem with ideological discourses on ?responsibilitization? and processes of moral ?othering? to minoritize specific groups within an ethnic minority group by perpetuating their exclusion from ?mainstream? sources of economic and social capital.