New York Confiscates $20 Million in Lottery Winnings from Welfare Recipients
Posted on: July 6, 2017, 02:00h.
Last updated on: July 6, 2017, 12:57h.
New York State has confiscated almost $20 million in lottery winnings over the past four years via a little-known clawback policy that targets winners on welfare.
Many states deduct an individual’s outstanding taxes or unpaid child support from a lottery payout but New York is the one state that reclaims welfare payments too.
Authorities can pounce on up to 50 percent of a windfall to recoup anything the claimant has received in welfare over the last decade.
And since lottery winners of $600 and upwards must visit a state lottery center and proffer their Social Security numbers to claim their winnings, there’s nowhere to hide.
According to Syracuse.com, authorities have yanked payouts from under the noses of “lucky winners” around 30,000 times.
Black Market
Syracuse.com found that a black market in winning tickets has sprung up as a result of the system, as winners sell lottery tickets to third parties, or so-called “discounting schemes,” in an attempt avoid paying back money to the state.
Last month, Neil Ferguson, 50, of Manhattan, and Eduardo Moran-Barrera, 63, of the Bronx, were charged with criminal tax fraud for operating such a scheme.
Authorities became suspicious when they realized Moran had won the lottery 686 times since 2012, for a grand total of $1.48 million.
“These arrests mark the first significant cases where, thanks to joint efforts of commission and New York state Tax & Finance investigators, we found individuals acting as ‘discounters’ to cover for others avoiding paying what’s owed and filing taxes on the winnings,” a gaming commission spokesman told the New York Post.
Easy Come, Easy Go
“We know all about [the program],” a woman outside a lottery vendor told Syracuse.com, on condition the journalist by her a scratch-off ticket. “If we win, we give the lottery ticket to someone that works.” When asked her name, she demanded another scratch-off ticket in return for supplying the information.
The clawback program was introduced in 1995 as part of a welfare reform package enacted by Governor George Pataki that was designed to “emphasize work, personal responsibility and temporary assistance instead of permanent dependence.”
But many have suggested the system is a little… well, mean, especially when you consider the disproportionate amount that the economically disadvantaged contribute to lottery ticket sales.
A 2011 study found that the people in the lowest socioeconomic strata in the US had the highest levels of lottery participation.
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Last Comments ( 2 )
Believe it or not it takes alot of work and I mean hard work to continually get checks from a system that 4 or 5 times a year tries to kick you out of the system or tries to get you to take some slave wage menial job just to stay on, some of these folks should have a PhD in scamming the last thing they are is lazy maybe physically but their minds are constantly one step ahead of the system, it's the working stiffs that are idiots
The problem here is....if you are on welfare that means you are poverty strickened, so how is it that you can afford to gamble??? People use this as a career and speaking as a tax payer, when I can hardly put food on my table but are putting food on there's while they continue to drive expensive cars, smoke cigarettes and dress better then me....I am pissed...if you can't afford to have a child and you continue to have several with no accountable fathers so they can continue getting my tax money...anyone on the system should submit to random drug testing and inspect there homes to make sure they aren't living with men undocumented, not to mention, this child tax credit that they do not deserve because they have suffered zero loss because of this pandemic...they have still continued to collect the same money from welfare, social security disability, and ssi..if anyone has hurt from this pandemic is the working person...When is America gonna wake up and hold these people accountable for themselves and there several children whom have no fathers listed on birth certificates...Why is this everyone else's problem??? Stop having kids you cannot support and putting them on the tax payer.....It's called laziness..and if I'm wrong?? How is it they have extra cash to gamble, smoke, do drugs and hang out all day, while people like myself have to pay for these lazy, irresponsible mothers...Work and support your own kids just like everyone else...