Deadbeat parents to pay

The days of deadbeat parents gambling with their children's futures will soon be over if a new bill passes the state senate.\nSenate Bill 143, proposed by Sen. Richard Bray, R-Martinsville, would require casinos, betting parlors and racetracks to check the name of any person who wins more than $2,000 against a national database that keeps track of parents who owe child support.\nThe money the parent owes would be sent to child support agencies. Whatever is left over would belong to the parent.\n"It won't come up with a lot of money, but it will be a step in the right direction," Bray said.\nThe Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Bray, which is scheduled to hear the bill Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.\n"We're in favor of it," said Stephen DeMougin, director of the family and children division of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. "It's part of our job to capture funds and get them back to moms and kids anyway we can."\nHowever, the casino industry is resisting the idea, saying it would be too difficult to implement.\n"It's practically impossible," said Mike Smith, executive director of the Casino Association of Indiana. "Any database would have to be up to the moment 24 hours a day, seven days a week for anywhere between 7,000 to 10,000 people to have access to it."\nThe bill was modeled after a national system proposed by President Bush as part of a welfare reform bill. That bill is still going through the U.S. Senate.\nThe idea has taken hold around the nation. Missouri proposed a similar bill but abandoned it last year. Smith noted "eight or nine" other states that attempted to implement a similar system, but all were abandoned. \nDeMougin admits it would be difficult to check those who win big at the tables but doesn't believe the program as a whole would be hard to institute.\n"The fact of the matter is that with the cost of automating business today, I find it hard to believe we can't check this," DeMougin said. "Until a cost analysis is done, I wouldn't rule it out."\nAlready one group, the Hoosier Lottery, checks if winners of prizes over $600 owe back child support. That program has been in effect since the lottery's inception in 1989. Last year, it collected more than $94,000 said Director of Public Relations Andrew Reed.\nBut Smith points out that, unlike the lottery, casinos are not run by the state.\n"I'm not sure it's the responsibility of private industry to track down deadbeat parents," he said. "I believe it's the responsibility of parents to pay for their children, but it's not the responsibility of private businesses to enforce that."\n-- Contact senior writer Chris Freiberg at wfreiber@indiana.edu