JimmyDanger is also wrong. Being "core" or "casual" has absolutely nothing to do with how much money you waste on it. It's all about how serious you are about gaming.
Core gamers consider gaming a big hobby of theirs. Casual gamers tend to enjoy gaming, but don't necessarily call it a hobby (but that doesn't mean they don't!).
Core gamers play a variety of genres, and usually like to branch out to multiple systems if they can afford to. They have little loyalty to a certain system or franchise - they're perfectly willing, maybe even happy, to get into the "rival" franchise of their favourite game. Casuals are happy with only a few genres, if not only a few games, and are content to own a single system per generation, sometimes two. They also rarely have loyalties, but only because they don't care so much.
Core gamers don't necessarily spend a lot of time gaming every single day, or even every week, but they'd usually like to, and are capable of spending entire days gaming regularly. Casual gamers will oftentimes play for a couple hours and decide that's enough for now.
Core gamers tend to be into niche titles and genres, picking up odd games that 90% of the gaming community has scarcely even heard of. Casual gamers will only pick up popular titles and/or titles that catch their eye in the game store.
You can be a "core" gamer and stick solely with games from the previous generation. You can be a "casual" gamer and own 20 brand-new games every year.
That, and many of you people are forgetting a classification that was used before "core" was coined. There IS a difference between "hardcore" and "core". A "hardcore" gamer is something of a cross between a core and casual gamer. They love gaming like a core gamer, but stick to only a genre or two, tend to only own games IN that genre and only be GOOD at games in that genre, but will play for a much longer time than the usual casual, perhaps even longer than the typical core gamer. They tend to have extreme loyalties to their systems and/or franchises. Most Call of Duty, Halo, and Battlefield players fall into this category. Same with WoW players (rather, ESPECIALLY WoW players). System fanboys tend to fit in here.
So, to recap:
-Core gamers consider gaming a big part of their life
-Core gamers like a large variety of genres
-Core gamers are capable of gaming for hours upon hours on end
-Core gamers like unpopular games
-Core gamers will play just about anything with few loyalties
-Core gamers, if they can, will own a LOT of games and systems
-Hardcore gamers consider gaming a big part of their life
-Hardcore gamers like very few genres, perhaps even very few games
-Hardcore gamers are capable of gaming for hours upon hours on end
-Hardcore gamers tend to only like popular games
-Hardcore gamers have strong loyalties to systems and/or franchises
-Hardcore gamers will own few systems and few games, but tend to have a lot of merchandise related to them
-Casual gamers enjoy gaming, but don't consider it a big part of their lives
-Casuals gamers like very few genres, perhaps even very few games
-Casual gamers prefer to only play for a little while
-Casual gamers tend to only like popular games
-Casual gamers will play just about anything with few loyalties
-Casual gamers will own few systems and few games, with little merchandise related to them
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