Gambling away the child-support money

Sadly, some parents would rather spend their child-support money on lottery tickets and slot machines than on putting food into their children's mouths.

These moms and dads have tried to become ex-parents when they became ex-husbands and ex-wives, but Missouri wants to put a stop to that practice. And the Bush administration has come up with an idea to help.

The administration believes it would cost $40 million to develop a Web site that casinos across the nation could check before doling out money to winners of $5,000 or more.

Some Missouri gaming officials are skeptical. They tried a similar program for a few weeks two years ago and only came up with one deadbeat parent. That kind of return hardly makes the initial investment worthwhile.

However, there appears to be another way. The Missouri Lottery diverted more than $26,000 in winnings to custodial parents during the fiscal year that ended last June. Lottery workers run winners' names through databases to check for taxes owed, child support owed and benefits collected, such as food stamps.

If casinos were given access to the same databases, they could catch the same types of people in their facilities. The gaming and lottery administrations should work together on this program.