Welfare recipients take out cash at strip clubs, liquor stores

Published January 06, 2013
New York PostThey’re on the dole — and watching the pole.



Welfare recipients took out cash at bars, liquor stores, X-rated video shops, hookah parlors and even strip clubs — where they presumaby
spent their taxpayer money on lap dances rather than diapers, a Post investigation found.


A database of 200 million Electronic Benefit Transfer records from January 2011 to July 2012, obtained by The Post through a Freedom of Information request, showed welfare recipients using their EBT cards to make dozens of cash withdrawals at ATMs inside Hank’s Saloon in Brooklyn; the Blue Door Video porn shop in the East Village; The Anchor, a sleek SoHo lounge; the Patriot Saloon in TriBeCa; and Drinks Galore, a liquor distributor in The Bronx.

The state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), which oversees the “cash assistance program,” even lists some of these welfare-ready ATMs on its Web site.

One EBT machine is stationed inside Club Eleven, an infamous Hunts Point jiggle joint known as much for its violent history as its girls in pink thongs.

Cops have been cracking down on the Bronx club since 2009 and shut it down temporarily in 2010. In July, five men were stabbed and two others shot outside after bouncers broke up a 4 a.m. brawl with pepper spray. The club appeared to be shuttered when The Post visited Thursday.

Club Heat, another Bronx strip club that dispenses EBT cash, is also no stranger to violence. A 33-year-old woman was fatally shot in the head outside the club in December 2011.

Critics blasted the government for turning a blind eye to welfare’s sleazy money.

Film at 11.... 😠

DrafterX wrote:

So, people on welfare should not squander their money. They should not go to strip clubs. They should not drink. They definitely should not waste money on smoking. If you wind-up on welfare, the benefits the government provides should also not be spent on junk food.

God help me that I get into a car accident, of suffer some other tragedy and need welfare to survive. No more playing bingo.

So would it be ok if I read Playboy if I bought old issues form the secondhand book store?

Brewha wrote:

Hey, the downtrodden, long-suffering poor have to resort to sleazy strip clubs to get their jollies because the greedy rich took all the available high-class escorts.

DadZilla3 wrote:

Not to ask the obvious... but how do we know the welfare recipients aren't working at these establishments as janitorial staff, or in a similar capacity?

victor809 wrote:

Welfare recipients take out cash at strip clubs, liquor stores

Published January 06, 2013
New York PostThey’re on the dole — and watching the pole.

DrafterX wrote:

Yeah, It’s the people on welfare that are ripping us off.
We could end all of this if we would just deregulate the banking industry.

Brewha wrote:

So, people on welfare should not squander their money. They should not go to strip clubs. They should not drink. They definitely should not waste money on smoking. If you wind-up on welfare, the benefits the government provides should also not be spent on junk food.

God help me that I get into a car accident, of suffer some other tragedy and need welfare to survive. No more playing bingo.

So would it be ok if I read Playboy if I bought old issues form the secondhand book store?

Brewha wrote:

Not to ask the obvious... but how do we know the welfare recipients aren't working at these establishments as janitorial staff, or in a similar capacity?

victor809 wrote:

Then why do they need welfare ?

dubleuhb wrote:

You already know the answer: they are all too lazy to work.

rfenst wrote: