sidney..."Do you have a link to a reputable study proving that millions are gaming the system? No you don't because it's something someone made up! It's talk show hysteria."...
Don't know if this is a obama/democrat sanctioned web site but I sure you will come to your own conclusions...not exactly a study either.
Welfare aid cards valid at casinos
State-issued debit cards work at some gaming floor ATMs. Officials vow cutoff.
June 24, 2010|
Jack Dolan
articles.latimes.com
California welfare recipients are able to use state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash on gaming floors in more than half of the casinos in the state, a Los Angeles Times review of records found.
The cards, provided by the Department of Social Services to help recipients feed and clothe their families, work in automated teller machines at 32 of 58 tribal casinos and 47 of 90 state-licensed poker rooms, the review found.
State officials said Wednesday they were working to determine how much money had been withdrawn from casino ATMs by people using the welfare debit cards.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who learned of the issue when asked to comment for this story, promised to take immediate action.
"We have instructed our vendors to prohibit these cards from being accepted at ATMs located in casinos and card rooms," Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said Wednesday. "It is reprehensible that anyone would use taxpayer money for anything other than its intended purpose."
Administration officials said the social services agency contracts with a private ATM network to handle the electronic transfer of benefits to people on welfare, and hadn't noticed that the taxpayer money was being withdrawn at gambling establishments.
McLear said the system of paying out welfare benefits via bank cards was created under Schwarzenegger's predecessor, Democrat Gray Davis.
Since the late 1990s most states have adopted this system, which is a viewed as a more efficient way of distributing and tracking government aid.
Schwarzenegger has been wrangling with lawmakers over other efforts to combat waste and fraud in the state's social services programs. He fought back a legislative effort to discontinue fingerprinting of food stamp recipients, a system designed to prevent double-dipping and other abuses.
Casino ATMs account for a handful of the thousands of machines in the contractor's network, and the amount withdrawn from them by welfare recipients almost certainly would comprise a tiny fraction of the state's multibillion-dollar welfare spending. But the issue is likely to come up as lawmakers fight over how best to close their historic budget deficit.
Schwarzenegger had already threatened to eliminate the state welfare program in his May budget proposal, and that was before he and his Republican allies in the Legislature knew that the cash could be accessed by people strolling from poker games to blackjack tables.
"In a time when we have a $19-billion deficit, and we're taking a serious look at the future of many safety-net programs, it's appalling to think that welfare beneficiaries can use their cards in a casino," said Seth Unger, spokesman for the Assembly Republican Caucus.
Democratic leaders, who have vowed to protect the state's fraying social safety net, also began calling for reform Wednesday.
"In these tough times, when so many children and vulnerable families depend on the safety net, we have to make sure food stamps and other services are being used the way the people of California intended them to be," said Shannon Murphy, spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles). "Other states have closed this loophole, and the Assembly will work with the Schwarzenegger administration to make that happen."
The casinos are listed on a Department of Social Services website that allows welfare recipients to search for addresses of ATMs where they can withdraw cash provided under the Temporary Aid for Needy Families program. The monthly grant ranges up to $694; most of the ATMs impose a withdrawal limit of about $300 per day.
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