Definintion - A "gold digger" is a woman who associates with or marries a man chiefly for material gain.

Should this be categorized as a type of prostitution? Should marriages be looked into more to prevent this?

A perfect example of "gold digging" would be Anna Nicole Smith. A stripper from Texas who became a sex symbol and made millions just by giving herself away to an oil business executive 66 years her senior. This eventually was brought up to the Supreme Court and she walked away with $88.5 dollars in her pocket. This is despicable. A highschool dropout of 26 would go so far to marry an 89 year old man just for money.

Any thoughts on this?

Actually Pika it doesn't have to be a girl but its usually the case. No it cannot be counted as prostitution because if they made it illegal the Supreme Court would have to deal with lots of cases of this being unconstitutional. Rare as it is there are cases where people with and age difference of that much are actually attracted to each other. So its not prostitution its just scamming.

This reminds me of "sport teams" thread from a couple days ago. It may be annoying, yes, but it's all fair game.
Both parties usually know what they are getting into, and if one of them doesn't it's their own fault.

It doesn't just annoy me, it angers me that someone would resort to marrying a person they don't love, but rather to inherit their money and possesions.

That's why God invented pre-nuptial agreements.

I think it is rather disgraceful.
but it is also the fault of the dirty old man, just wanting a cheap shag (now i do say cheap, but the oil tycoons shag cost him 88.5 MILLION dollors).haha

If you've got it, use it.

Ain't nothing wrong with that. Part of life.

So your saying that if someone marries another person just for their money it's ok?

Listen pika, real life is not a cheesy Hollywood chick flick.
Money is far from the last factor people look at when choosing a mate, it's just how the cookie crumbles. Money = freedom, and access to many pleasures and conveniences. People like that.

You seem to be a hopeless idealist....but it'll change.