Gambling on child support.

• Position: TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS - Brief article

Centennial State gamblers beware. Colorado lawmakers recently passed the Child Support Obligations law to ensure that large winners who are delinquent on their child support payments won't get their pay-outs.

Race tracks and casinos will now have to cross check a winner's name with a Department of Revenue registry of deadbeat parents. If it flags a winner, the money will be withheld. The winner will have to call the division of child support enforcement to settle the obligation before getting the prize money.

"Casinos fought this like heck," says Representative Joel Judd, who has introduced the bill for the last five years. Judd acknowledges that while large casinos should not have a problem implementing the law, smaller casinos and race tracks that do not have as much staff or security may have a little more difficulty. The law takes...