California Welfare Recipients Use Debit Cards in Casino ATMs

By admin
Jun 28, 2010
6:37 pm

The state of California has been under siege economically and continues on the downward abyss to bankruptcy since Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger began his administration. Just over seven years since he took office calling incumbent candidate Gray Davis a typical “tax and spend” liberal, California is financially bankrupt and may be headed down the same path as Greece.

Now the governor has another problem. Schwarzenegger has focused on dealing with waste and fraud in the state’s social services programs, but seems to have missed an area — welfare reform.

It seems that any of California welfare recipients can use state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash in more than half of the casinos in the state according to a recent article published by the Los Angeles Times.

State officials are in the process of trying to determine how much money has been spent by individuals who have the welfare debit cards at casinos. The cards are issued to welfare recipients by the Department of Social Services. They are intended to be used to purchase food, clothes and other necessities, which is the reason they work in ATMs. The ATM’s that accept these cards are owned primarily by banks,

This past May, the Gov. Schwarzeneger said that he may eliminate the state welfare program completely based on his proposed budget in an effort to deal with California’s massive $19-billion deficit. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
For more with Dr. Stephens, visit twitter.com/rawdawgbuffalo and rawdawgb.blogspot.com.