Why does Home Depot refund Cash for Debit Card purchases?

Not as much as they used to be- they are switching to virtual cash wherever possible. Here in flyover country, almost all the machines and table games are are chip/player card, not coins or paper. All that cash handling is expensive. And without the implied protection of mob ownership (for the 'indian' casinos), having cash anywhere except cashier/chip/in-house player (debit) card office is a security risk. Emptying all those machines and under-table cash drip boxes, is expensive. The cash office staff would pretty much be the only place to pull it off.

If it's over $10,000 it's required to be reported by the casino just as any other cash transaction. And if you claim any money is winnings it's subject to income tax. For example, if someone is living the lifestyle of the rich and the IRS comes a calling, you can't just say "I won 2 million in Las Vegas". They will simply ask for proof, verification from the casino, where were the withholdings, etc.

In other words, I don't see Las Vegas being much more useful at laundering money than banks. Unless you have a crooked casino in on it, in which case there are more banks in the country for that possibility than casinos.

There was one example on "Breaking Bad." The lawyer tried to get the dope maker/dealer to buy a (crappy) beauty salon. The cash from the dope could be deposited as revenue from the hair dresser and disguised as legitimate income.

All businesses have the same reporting requirements.

A local bank got shut down for money laundering a few years back (they were simply forgetting to report large cash transactions for selected "clients") who were actually using handtrucks to bring the money in.

I think folks are forgetting the $10k rule isn't aimed at small time folks. Drug dealers and folks of their ilk deal with lots of cash and they need a way to launder it.

But bounced checks are nowhere near the issue they used to be. I always thought the most reasonable way to deal with "rewards" cards was to simply require the user to pay for their own "rewards" in the form of a surcharge.

what....you want it refunded on your Medicaid card instead?

Yes, if you take away $10,000+ to the casino they might report it to the IRS. But the point of money-laundering isn't to avoid taxes, it's to get the cash into the financial system so it can be transferred elsewhere, or at least saved so you don't have piles of currency. Taxes are a small price to pay for that- that's why some money- laundering is run through legitimate businesses, which also pay taxes.

Furthermore, gambling income is only taxable to the extent it exceeds gambling losses. So if you launder money through a casino and they report it, you could probably claim a deduction for gambling losses another time (although you might be asked for some evidence).

A few gas stations here give a discount of a few cents a gallon for cash. They post prices per gallon for cash and for credit

There isn't any might about it. Any cash transaction over $10,000 has to be reported to the IRS by law. And with the constant oversight the casinos are under, I'd expect them to be among the last to violate that law. And if you win a substantial amount, they must withold tax.

I don't think you're going to find any drug dealers happy to give 40 or 50% of his earnings to the IRS. They are already breaking laws that could sent them to jail for 20 year to life. Getting nailed for avoiding income tax isn't going to phase them one bit. And I assure you that the money that is being laundered via legtitimate businesses most taxation somehow, eg by coming up with phoney business losses to offset it.

The point to the reporting system is that it's perfectly normal for a person to win $50,000 at a casino. It's not normal for that same person to be winning $50,000 every week, or every month, which is what is required for money laundering to be successful on a large scale. If you just have $50,000 in cash one time, no need to really launder it at all even if it's from an illegal stream.

I saw that too. Unfortunately, it made little sense. I believe Mr. White and his sidekick were being paid $1mil a month. I don't know about the beauty salons in your area, but around here any one of them reporting that kind of money would set off all kinds of red flags. It would take quite a chain of salons to have that much money blend into and not be noticed.

Hmm. You're right.

Maybe an HVAC service company?

I don't think you're going to find any drug dealers happy to give 40 or 50% of his earnings to the IRS. They are already breaking laws that could sent them to jail for 20 year to life. Getting nailed for avoiding income tax isn't going to phase them one bit. And I assure you that the money that is being laundered via legtitimate businesses most taxation somehow, eg by coming up with phoney business losses to offset it.

Happy? Of course not. But if there's no other alternative... anyway sometimes it's easier to catch them for tax evasion than drug dealing, and everybody spending money needs to show some taxable income anyway, if they want to buy nice cars, etc. Otherwise the IRS can ask them to prove a source of the income...

Since you have no idea whether their card is a "rewards" card, how do you propose implementing your "solution". How much is a lost customer worth?

But they can't tell the difference between a normal card and a "rewards" card.

Not only is it any transaction over $10K, but any group of transactions totaling $10K, or *ANY* suspicious transactions of *ANY* amount. If you bring in $5000 every day, it's going to get reported.

Happy isn't the point. They will to "clean" the money. After the taxes are paid it can be used for legitimate purposes (or not).

That's why you buy the casino. Million$ will disappear into the profits.

LOL!

How about a Presidential campaign?

Sure, what's the problem. If you *own* the casino...

Typically every rewards card has that wording printed on it. And since the great majority of these transactions are electronic I can't imagine it would be that involved to determine how to process them.

Would you patronize a store named say "Fair-Mart" that posted and promotes the following:

We don't expect you to pay for items in the other persons cart so we also don't expect you to pay bank fees and "rewards" that are not applicable to your transaction so those additional costs are directly added only to those transactions.