Deadbeat Dads Win to Lose in Colorado, West Virginia Casinos
Casino in West Virginia and Colorado may be made responsible for collecting payments from deadbeat dads that play at their facilities. Both states are expected to enact plans which will effectively garnish big winnings from gamblers who are behind on child support payments.
The two states are adding this new method of collection to several other systems designed to prevent those who try to avoid paying court-ordered child support from absconding with cash they have hidden from the courts.
West Virginia will begin using their new plan within ninety days, while Colorado is expected to start July 1st.
One Colorado legislator asserted that banks, mortgage lenders, and the like are required to perform records searches to stop parents behind in child support from using money for other purposes, and the casino industry must bear their share of the burden. Representative Joel 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."
Casino officials pointed out that it is problematic establishing which players might be winners. A gambler might buy $5000 in chips, cash in $2000, and look like a winner, even though he was a $3000 loser.
Casinos are required to keep records of payouts bigger than $600 on most bets, and over $1200 on slots for the IRS. But table players are on their own recognizance.
Most alarmingly, the states expect the casinos to do the collecting. Asking casino employees to perform law enforcement duties is ludicrous. Notifying authorities of tracked winnings is debatable; no reasonable person could expect the casino staff to act as sheriffs as well.
Colorado's actions are enforced by a law recently passed, but West Virginia is hoping the casinos voluntarily go along, as there is no authority to force them to comply. Here's hoping Colorado finds its law unenforceable and soon withdrawn, while West Virginia casino management must resist being forced into such an untenable position.
