I get a significant second income from gambling, and I know plenty of people who do it full time, mainly playing either poker or blackjack. This would effectively put them out of business, or at least make it much more difficult, since professionals play with large amounts of money. The easiest way to operate is to have a lot of cash.
It's already frustrating. If you go through an airport with more than $10,000 in cash, you can have it confiscated if they find it on you. I don't know what the legal mumbo jumbo is which justifies it, but simply having that much cash on you is considered suspicious enough to have it seized on the spot. You're always treated like a criminal. I know of a couple of instances where this is indeed what has happened.
And good luck trying to get it back, or at least all of it. With the help of a good lawyer you can get most of it back, on rare occasions all of it. One group had over $100,000 confiscated. They were only able to get $95,000 back. This is all the police claimed to have discovered.
This is a perfect example of government coercion. There is no reason to punish people for holding onto cash (or for carrying large sums) other than to try to force everyone to behave in a prescribed manner. It pisses me off.
Brett
>curiouser and curiouser...
>
>cheers,
>t
>
>----- Forwarded
>Subject: FC: Fed official wants expiration dates, tracking devices for bills
>http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,32121,00.html
>
>-------------
>
>Not so crazy, actually. Similar things have
>been done in the past, tho I'm not the expert
>on that.
>
>They've already put radio transmitters in our teeth,
>so what's a little magnetic strip on our money?
>
>mbs