Clint_L
Hero
Calling someone a "whale" in this context (any context, really) is generally considered offensive: it is suggesting that they are being victimized by predatory marketing practices, with a connotation that they are foolish, spendthrifts, or otherwise easy "marks."Whale absolutely is offensive terminology; it reduces the people to whom it refers to mere sources of revenue. Which is exactly the intent, because in reality the people to whom it refers are victims of extremely predatory marketing tactics. Calling them “whales” simultaneously dehumanizes them and disguises the fact that they are most often children with illicit access to parents’ credit card information and adults with gambling or shopping addictions.