Stop Predatory Gambling

Casinos put people on welfare and profit from welfare

by spgadmin

California casinos continue to reel from news reports that the state’s casinos are profiting from the gambling losses of welfare recipients using taxpayer-funded debit cards.

How did the casinos respond? They expressed surprise that the ATMs can be used by welfare recipients to access benefits.

“We had no knowledge EBT cards are even accepted,” said Mickey Burke, general manager of Konocti Vista Casino.He said it wasn’t until the publicity surfaced about the misuse of the welfare cards at the casinos “that we checked it and found out.”

Some casinos have more than 1000 cameras closely watching patrons and they track every penny wagered inside the casino with one of the most sophisticated consumer technology systems in the world. Yet, they claim they did not people were using EBT cards inside their casinos.

The question for every citizen and policy maker to be asking is this: how much casino profits are coming from the losses of people receiving some form of government subsidy? It’s substantial and it explains why nearly every state with an expansive government program of predatory gambling has high taxes and is facing serious budget deficits.