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Privacy World - The WORLD'S SHREWDEST PRIVACY NEWSLETTER
West Virginia gamblers could be nabbed for child support
Deadbeat parents, listen up: Win big at the casino tables in West Virginia
or Colorado, and your kids might win, too. The two states are moving
ahead with plans to garnish the winnings of casino gamblers who owe
child support. West Virginia's Department of Health and Human
Resources is working on a plan that could be in place within 90 days,
while Colorado is rolling out its system July 1.
The proposals are another tool in a diverse arsenal that authorities
already have to collect money from delinquent parents. "We impose the
same burden on banks; they must search their records. We do the same
thing with brokerage houses and other businesses. Welcome to the
club," said state Rep. Joel Judd, a Denver Democrat who fought for
five years to overcome industry opposition and win approval from
legislators.
"I'm not aware of anyplace else in society where we have
large cash transactions like we do at the casinos," Judd said. "It
just seemed to me that if a guy owes back child support and wins big,
the kids ought to get the money." Colorado's plan faced significant
opposition from casino operators who argue it is difficult to track
table winnings, and West Virginia is hearing the same. Critics say
the programs impose an undue and unenforceable burden. "A person
could actually come to the casino, purchase $2,000 worth of chips,
cash out $1,000 worth of chips, and it would look like he won $1,000.
But the truth is, he lost $1,000," said West Virginia Racing
Association President John Cavacini.
"There's no system in place that would compute winning and losing."
Currently, the Internal Revenue Service requires casinos to report large
payouts - over $600 on most forms of wagering, over $1,200 on slot play
- but Cavacini said it is the obligation of the gambler to report income
from table games. The IRS also requires casinos to report cash prizes
over $5,000 in tournaments and non-cash prizes worth more than $600.
While many states check big winners of traditional lottery games against
lists of people who owe child support, the National Conference of State
Legislatures believes Colorado and West Virginia would be first to go
after casino winnings.
Mississippi and New Mexico have statutes allowing casino payouts to be
intercepted for child support debts, but neither is doing so. Budget
problems stalled development of an electronic interface in Mississippi,
where child support officials also couldn't get an agreement with the
casinos,
said Stephanie Walton, a program manager for the National Conference of
State Legislatures.
The New Mexico Department of Human Services, meanwhile, can track
winnings and match them to a list of delinquent payers, but it has no way
to collect the money. Spokeswoman Betina Gonzales McCracken said the
state simply gathers information on payouts over $1,200 as evidence for
court hearings.
Nor is there any way to predict how many people such systems would snare:
Casinos are tourist destinations, and each state checks names and Social
Security numbers against only its own database. In the Colorado and
West Virginia systems, casinos would garnish the winnings of delinquent
gamblers on the spot - a prospect Judd said operators found unappealing.
"I told them, there is no other line of business better equipped to handle
an angry customer than yours," he said. But there are differences in the
states' plans: While Colorado would go after all forms of winnings,
West Virginia would initially focus only on table games.
West Virginia may target slots later, said Garrett Jacobs, deputy
commissioner of the state child support bureau. But it must first
determine how to apply the system to about 1,600 video poker bars.
Allowing employees at those clubs to access a secure system could
compromise personal information, Jacobs said. The state also believes
it would be unfair to force child-support checks on the four casinos
without requiring the same of the smaller parlors that compete for
their customers. In Colorado, legislators passed a law to implement
the new program. But in West Virginia, child-support officials are
trying to bypass lawmakers. Because the West Virginia Lottery lacks
jurisdiction to enforce the child-support plan, however, its success
depends on the casinos' willingness to participate. Spokeswomen for
Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack and Mountaineer Casino
Racetrack & Resort in Chester, W.Va., said they know too little about
the plan to comment. But an executive with Tri-State Racetrack &
Gaming Center in Nitro, W.Va., which will soon install table games,
said collecting child support would be a hassle. "I can certainly
understand the problem, and I'm certainly sympathetic to the problem.
But I'm also running a business," said Daniel Adkins, vice president
of the casino's parent company, Michigan-based Hartman & Tyner Inc.
"It seems like quite a burden to put on the operator." Adkins said he
would rather collaborate on a system both parties could live with,
such as a periodic list of offenders' names that could be distributed
to the casinos. "We're partners in the state, no question about it,"
he said, "and I'm sure we could come up with a reasonable solution."
The above article courtesy of Tom Breen. |
