STUDENT WRITING COMPETITION
Child support
In addition, withholdings may occur for winners who have delinquent debt and/or have outstanding child support arrearages.” 28 There is not a specific statute in place for child support payments to be taken out of gambling winnings, but the Mississippi Legislature has proposed a House Bill to be enacted that includes a provision stating that: “the commission shall coordinate with the Department of Human Services to promulgate rules and regulations to withhold the payments of progressive slot machine annuities, compensation from games, gaming devices and cash gaming winnings from any person who has outstanding child support arrearages as reported to the commission.” 29 Addiction in divorce law proceedings Gambling addiction is considered during divorce hearings, but it is not an actual ground itself. 30 One of the grounds for divorce is habitual cruel and inhuman treatment, which include: spousal domestic abuse, habitual drunkenness, habitual drug use, desertion, and imprisonment.82 Bell writes that for this ground to be analyzed, conduct of the offending spouse must “endanger life, limb, or health, or create a reasonable apprehension of such danger, rendering the relationship unsafe for the party seeking relief, or [be] so unnatural and infamous as to make the marriage revolting to the non-offending spouse and render it impossible for that spouse to discharge the duties of marriage, thus destroying the basis for its continuance.” 31 Smith v. Smith is a Mississippi Supreme Court case that discusses divorce and gambling addiction. 32 When Mr. Billy Smith, Jr. lost over $300,000 due to his gambling addiction, his wife filed for divorce alleging habitual cruel and inhuman treatment as well as constructive desertion. The court analyzed the standard for habitual cruel and inhuman treatment, looking more closely at the second prong of habitual cruelty, unnatural
Child support orders are determined on a sliding scale based upon the number of children involved and the income of the paying parent. They can be modified for different reasons including involuntary loss of job or income. With obligations of support, courts have the ability to impute, or assign, an income or earning capacity on the paying parent and disregard their actual income. While courts can make that decision, there is a good faith or voluntariness test to determine if income or earning capacity should be imputed. The test determines whether a paying parent “voluntarily chooses to work at less than full earning capacity,” which means income can be imputed on the parent who has left a job voluntarily for non-health related or justifiable reasons. 26 A parent “cannot voluntarily weaken [their] financial position to lessen his child support obligation.” 27 In case law throughout the states, gambling addicts have been seen to lose their jobs or fail to find an income or otherwise weaken their financial position due to their addiction. If an addict has lost their job the question of “is that job loss involuntary?” arises. Gambling addictions have been argued to be a mental illness, and if the courts decide to consider job loss due to an addiction health-related, then a noncustodial parent with an addiction could have a lower imputed earning capacity. Courts must, however, decide in best interests of the child. Even if a noncustodial parent has a gambling addiction and has lost their job or earning capacity, the children must still have support from both parents. Another aspect of child support is gambling winnings and support payments. It is reasonable to expect a noncustodial parent to use gambling winnings to pay child support, especially if they are not keeping up with those payments. Recently, the Mississippi lottery included a provision regarding a person’s winnings stating that “winning prizes greater than $600 are subject to state and federal taxes.
26 Deborah H. Bell, § 13.04[4], supra note 23, at 501 27 James W Shelson, General principles regarding modification of child support, Mississippi Chancery Practice § 38:25 (2022 ed.). 28 https://www.mslotteryhome.com/players/how-to-claim-your-prize-winnings/ 29 To Authorize The Gaming Commission And The Department Of Human Services To Coordinate Efforts To Obtain Child Support Arrearages From Game Winnings, H. B. No. 1081, 117th Cong. (2022). 30 Miss. Code Ann. § 93-5-1.
31 Deborah H. Bell, § 4.03, supra note 23, at 75. 32 Smith v. Smith, 90 So.3d 1259 (Miss. 2011).
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IMGL MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2024
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