California: State Cancels Access to Welfare Benefits on Cruise Ships and Casinos
October 7th, 2010I should have a California category to complete with Florida.
Via: Los Angeles Times:
California officials are cutting off use of state-issued welfare debit cards at casinos across the country and on cruise ships, in the wake of Times reports that the aid cards have been used to spend or withdraw millions of dollars in benefits at popular vacation spots including the Las Vegas strip and on ships sailing from ports around the world.
More than $69 million meant to help the needy pay their rent and clothe their children was accessed in all 49 other states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, according to data obtained by The Times from the California Department of Social Services.
The department instructed the vendor that administers the debit card program to make the changes Monday afternoon, in response to a report in The Times’ Monday edition.
Research Credit: valix
The ships part is interesting.
The Australian rules on that seem to be
http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/international/temporary.htm
Uh, don’t these guys get it yet? The poor gamble more than any other strata of the population. When the Commonwealth of Virginia first legalized the scratch cards, etc. in the late 1980’s my friend (formerly on the Nixon enemies list) called “legal” gambling a tax on the poor.
When in desperate straights, you gamble for a miracle. I don’t think the use of the welfare card is a scam. People who have them have figured out how to use them.
While this is pretty much a textbook cause of fraud, well, I dunno. If I were not-or underemployed and had one of the welfare cards, and if I had the very same morals I had as a teenager (rebelled against everything) I can definitely see myself using my welfare card to gamble.
I’m not condoning this practice at all, and it probably is a good thing California eyeballers caught it. Save lots of children from starving to death by cutting off the card.
Gambling can be a serious addiction among all humans. That’s why its been “legalized” through the state rather than the underground bookie. Milk the craving of the “poor slobs (rich and poor alike)” who freakin believe they are going to win the lottery someday.
Mind you, I was so desparately distressed with my work and life, I spent $20 or more per week, hoping and praying that winning the lottery would allow me to quit my work and be with my Mom.
Its a good thing I never won. Absolutely. Winning would have slimed all the personal growth and what I gained in spirit.