SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla.,None — WFTV found out how Seminole County will enforce its power against strip mall casinos. The county won a legal decision last week that allows it to ban the machines that simulate gambling and offer cash prizes.
Until now, all efforts to close them have failed because the casinos themselves are legal. Some people are playing the games with welfare money.
Investigative reporter George Spencer asked how that could happen, and there's already some action to stop them.
State-issued debit cards are supposed to help struggling families buy food and clothes. But WFTV found that welfare recipients used the cards in game rooms. The same game rooms local police have tried to shut down on gambling charges.
"I was shocked!" said Representative Scott Plakon, House of Representatives.
Plakon saw the problem first-hand and tried to figure out how much tax money was going into the machines. But no one in state government can even track it.
"To know that even one tax dollar is going to the benefit and to enrich owners of these places, I think is something that's got to be stopped," Plakon said.
Fast-growing and unregulated strip mall casinos such as Allied Veterans, made it very easy to misuse EBT cards intended as food stamps or temporary cash assistance.
A "Quest" logo at their ATMs, means EBT cards are accepted for cash withdrawals.
Allied Veterans even acknowledges that some of its managers watched patrons do it.
Florida's council on compulsive gambling began getting a handful of calls from EBT card gamblers, seeking help about a year ago.
The council says the problem is much bigger than anyone knows.
Gambling research indicates, for every desperate caller who admits to using EBT card cash for gaming, there are many more instances going unreported.
Last year, scandal rocked California when an audit found 79 casinos accepting welfare cards to the tune of $1.8 million.
Compare those 79 casinos to more than 500 so-called strip mall casinos in Florida. They're all unlicensed, so state leaders may never know who is playing with your money.
Allied Veterans says it recently reprogrammed all its ATM's to prevent EBT cards from being used to withdraw cash. But hundreds of other strip mall casinos are still accepting them.
These strip mall casinos do not have to register with the state, because they operate as charities.
Allied Veterans says it runs legal sweepstakes games, and leaders have never been convicted of gambling.