Support Enforcement Officer Drove Conn. Effort to Close Lottery Loophole
State now takes unpaid support from jackpots

Up to $3 million annually—that’s how much Connecticut estimates it will collect in unpaid child support, thanks to the work of Anthony Martino, a member of the Judicial Professional Employees Union, an affiliate of AFT Public Employees.

In 1999, Martino, a child support enforcement officer, discovered that lottery winners with delinquent child support bills could get the cash free and clear if they opted for a lump-sum payout. Winners selecting annuities, on the other hand, had unpaid support obligations deducted from their lottery proceeds—if the Lottery Commission notified the Department of Social Services.

“To me, it was a glaring loophole and I felt it needed to be addressed,” says Martino. “I figured there should be something in place that allowed the state to go after the lump sum.”

Martino worked with his state representative, J. Wayne Fox, to get a measure introduced in the Legislature in 2000—and again in 2001, 2002 and 2003. In May 2003 a bill passed, took effect in October 2003, and in March 2004, the procedure was in place under which the Lottery Commission vets all winners with jackpots in excess of $5,000 with the state’s child support division to see if they have a child support balance. “If they do, the state takes the back child support off the top,” says Martino.

Connecticut has already collected more than $600,000 in delinquent child support payments since March, Martino says, adding that there was a “$10,000 hit on the eighth day of being operational.”

“It’s not like we are going after money in a bank account,” says Martino, who has been a support enforcement officer for seven years in the lower Fairfield County office. “It’s a windfall. Many of the obligors don’t find it painful.”