In Indiana, there is a bill being proposed that would collect winnings won in casinos by parents who are behind in child support payments and handing them over to the kids.

It’s getting a lot of support from Department of Child Services, Senator Schnieder and the Governor, but casinos are not on board with the idea:

The Casino Association of Indiana worries the legislation would cause a two-minute delay on casino floors while names of winners are checked against an electronic list of people owing child support.

They also site these reasons that would further complicate things:

….searching an outside database of people who owe child support could be problematic since not all casino floors have Internet access.

Also, more than half of casino gamblers are from out of state, so the chances of catching deadbeat parents are relatively small, he said. Smith also argued that child support collections are the government’s responsibility, not the role of private business.

First of all, why don’t all casino floors have internet access? I see the point being made about most gamblers are from out of state. However, Colorado casinos already have something similar in place and they don’t seem to have a problem enforcing it, even if it is a bit of a headache and not without complaint from the casinos themselves.

Second, let’s look at a few stats: In Indiana a little over half of payments are collected.

More than 165,000 noncustodial parents each owe more $2,000 in back child support, which adds up to more than $2 billion in delinquencies, according to the state Department of Child Services

And, really, what the hell are you doing gambling in a casino if you can’t pay your child support and/or are considerably behind?

I have my doubts that this proposed bill will actually be put into place, despite being backed by the Department of Child Services and various statesmen. Indiana isn’t the most ‘family friendly’/'family forward’ state.