Posts tagged Bingo Players

This post originally appeared here.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California recently used his powers to limit spending of his struggling welfare state. Welfare recipients used to be able to buy marijuana, get psychic readings, enjoy so called massages in massage parlors, get bail bonds, play bingo, shop for guns, gamble on the race track or go on cruise ships or spend their time in smoking shops or get the latest tattoos.

All these nice past times are no longer. Based on a report in the Los Angeles Times, the Schwarzenegger administration informed county welfare directors on Monday with a letter, announcing that ATMs and point-of-sale card readers in such establishments will no longer be on the list of approved destinations for California’s Electronic Benefits Transfer cards.

The welfare cards are intended to pay for life’s necessities and are not considered consistent with the welfare program was said in the explaining letter.

Earlier this Year casinos and poker room had already been removed from the network, after the LA Times reported about out of state usage of welfare cards. Based on these reports, $69 million of California welfare money was spend elsewhere. $12 million of said money was spend in Las Vegas. Florida was also a hip location to get rid of the welfare funds. The tally counted in Florida was about $1.5 million. There was also welfare money spend on cruise ships which were sailing from Miami.