Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Letter: State Should Implement Gambling Customer Identification Program

The expressed opinions or views of this letter does not necessarily represent the opinion of the MiddletownMike blog:

Dear Editor,

The Internal Revenue Service proposal to reduce the threshold of casinos and other lawful gambling businesses being forced to gather identifying information of gamblers, including social security numbers from $1,200 to $600 means that casinos would have to stop games at that threshold in order to gather that information.

If New Jersey required, under state law, all gambling businesses to gather this information before taking any bets or allowing any person to begin playing any game and keep accurate records of all bets placed and results subject to real-time web based audits by the State of New Jersey and IRS, gambling at any lawful amount could take place uninterrupted as it would already be fully compliant with the IRS requirements.

The legislature should implement automatic compliance with federal requirements through mandating a state gambling Customer Identification Program and real-time audits to ensure that our gambling industry can become more competitive and secure.

Eric Hafner
Toms River

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