Welfare recipients withdrew $1.8 million from casino ATMs

California welfare recipients withdrew more than $1.8 million in taxpayer cash on casino floors between October 2009 and May 2010, state officials said Thursday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also issued an executive order Thursday requiring welfare recipients to sign a pledge that they will use their cash benefits only to “meet the basic subsistence needs” of their families. It gave the state Department of Social Services seven days to produce a plan to reduce other types of “waste, fraud and abuse” in the welfare program.

The moves come in response to a Los Angeles Times story describing how Department of Social Services officials failed to notice that the debit cards they issue to welfare recipients could be used at more than half of the tribal casinos and state-licensed poker rooms in California.

--Jack Dolan in Sacramento

Comments

[ginger snaps]

Sign a pledge? Most of these people on on welfare illegally anyway. They lie on their applications. The government has made it sooo easy for these characters to abuse the system. Did you know you can use the welfare debit card at fast food joints? How healthy is that? some welfare recipients do not even work, why do they get to purchase fast food to boot? At my house (single mother not on welfare & struggling) eating out is a treat not an obligation or requirement. We need to end the welfare system. It was only to be a temporay thing anyway, I think with all this abuse of the system it has ran its course.

[Lalameda]

Well, folks, that's what you get when your government contracts out to private companies. The REAL scammer here is the debit card company that GAVE the list including their machines at casinos. Now the next question: How much does the debit card company scam off each transaction? And these withdrawals can be traced, but good luck proving the recipient didn't take the cash and "buy legitimate purchases." Sheesh.

[The Stig]

A casino cash provider Sightline Payments has taken a leadership position in this area by combining a program for excluding both EBT welfare recipients and compulsive gamblers from getting cash in casinos, which includes ATMs, Cash Advances, and Check Cashing. While distinctly different demographic groups that are targeted, they both have a commonality- gambling with money they shouldn’t be. You can read more about the program at www.sightlinepaymentsresponsiblegaming.com.

[Online Casino Games]

Its very necessary and good to think about the welfare of casinos and done it.

[kgeeee]

It's people like this - who beat the system - who make it bad for the people who really need it. I've known people who took on raising children of relatives who died as soldiers in Iraq, and families whose children had serious diseases who needed a little help but were embarassed to use those cards because people make nasty remarks in the grocery store - automatically assuming they're beating the system; it's a shame that people who beat the system and are just lazy/have the entitlement mentality make it tough for people who really need a little help for a while. What ticks me off is that there ARE ways to catch these fraudulent sons of bs who do this; unfortunatley, the government is almost complicit. I knew someone who went to get welfare (he had $10,000 in the bank!), and the woman told him to "lose" $8000 of it. She LITERALLY said he could "spend the other $8000 on booze" - YES SHE SAID THE WORD BOOZE - and prove to her that he only had $2000 left. Unbelievable! And Arnold Schwarzenegger is a moron. I TOLD my Republican friends that he was no friend of conservatives, but they all said, "Oh he should be able to run for president!" Sign a pledge, INDEED!! Big dang dope.