In my city the panhandlers are professionals. You can find open positions on Craigslist and there's set shifts at standardized locations. If you get up early enough sometimes you'll see a shift change. A cheap cargo van shows up, the guy gets in, and another hops out to take his place.

All of the nearby locations with panhandlers are setup this way, maybe a couple hundred spots in the city. Sometimes I wonder how many people there are running the system...