[youtalkfunny]

I've posted rants similar to this one before, so you old-timers can skip this one:

"Regulation 6A" was passed in the late 90's. It requires merchants (banks, casinos, jewelers, car dealers, anyone who deals in large cash transactions) to report any customer who pays or receives $10,000 in a day. If the customer makes multiple transactions, the report (the Cash Transaction Report, or CTR) must be filed if the sum is >$10k, so the merchant will log the smaller transactions if they are a threat to go over $10k.

Why does the government feel entitled to this information? "To combat money laundering" was the answer. Nobody bought that line of trash from Day One. Everybody knew this info was going straight to the IRS. The IRS denied this initially, but finally came clean a few years later. "Yeah, you're right, we really have been reading all those CTR's."

I had to put up with this nonsense when I worked in a Las Vegas sportsbook. On Sunday mornings in the fall, I spent more time on this CTR log than I spent on booking football--even though I was certain that none of my bettors were attempting to launder money. I hated this--I never volunteered to be an unpaid Deputy IRS Investigator.

After a few years of this nonsense, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported that over seventy-seven million CTR's had been filed with the Feds nationwide; resulting in less than two-hundred money laundering investigations; resulting in exactly TWO money laundering convictions.

Needless to say, it was about this time that the IRS stepped up and admitted their involvement.

I don't even mind the "money laundering" BS. I'm no fan of the IRS, but I can't argue their need to know some of this stuff.

The part that irks me is the SECRECY. When that Bellagio cashier said that she was prohibited by law from explaining any of this to the customer, she was not making that up. The merchant is not allowed to help the customer "structure" his transactions to "evade" the reporting requirements. She's not allowed to explain this law, or these procedures, even though she knows them inside and out.

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS, COMMUNIST RUSSIA???

By the way, I'm not a merchant, so I don't think there's any law that prohibits ME from helping you guys around this:

--The reporting requirements only include CASH transactions. It should now be clear to you why many tournaments pay the winners in chips.

--At least when I was dealing with this stuff in the 90's, if you refused to hand over your ID, the casino could still complete the transaction if you were still under the $10k ceiling for the day. I'd just write "refused" in the box where I was supposed to write all your info in the log. Note that "refused" won't cut it on a CTR (over $10k); but it was good enough for those who stayed under that number.

Again, things may have changed in the years since then. But if you get asked for ID for a cash transaction under $10k, try to hold out and refuse, just to see what happens. If they don't go for it, at least you tried.

--Finally, I want to rant and rave about "The Bank Secrecy Act".

That's what they call it now. From the administration that gave us "The Clean Air Act" that doesn't clean air, "The No Child Left Behind Act" that is leaving behind children at an alarming rate, and "The Patriot Act", which would make the original Patriots spin in their graves if they knew it was named for them, comes "The Bank Secrecy Act", which shatters any confidentiality between you and your bank.

Again, it's not the reporting requirements that tear me up inside. It's the lying and the secrecy that kill me. What other law can you think of, where the government tries to HIDE FROM YOU the law that affects you?