ABSTRACT
Internet gambling is an enormous global business. In the United States, the most widespread form of legal gambling is pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing. Stereotypically, horse racing’s class identity has historically been split, defined on the one hand by wealthy, even aristocratic racehorse owners, and on the other hand by working class railbirds who spend their days at the track gambling away their meager savings. This division was reinforced in the early days of organized horse racing as racetrack owners constructed separate spaces for the wealthy and the working class. Today, major racetracks offer myriad spaces for on-track race watching, from general admissions seating to luxury boxes. The networked experience of horse race wagering, and online gambling overall, has been both explicitly and implicitly framed in class terms by industry executives. The racing industry has made explicit its desire to use digital media to bring new, young, middle-class urban and suburban fans to the sport, but as gambling entered the home through digital devices, concern grew over its implications for the middle-class home, echoing previous moral panics about communication technologies and social class.
