Casino: Employee stole thousands
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008
JAY, Okla. — A Delaware County casino has filed a civil lawsuit and a restraining order against an employee, alleging she stole more than $ 420, 000.
The Grand Lake Casino in Grove filed the petition last week in Delaware County District Court in Jay against Pat Mae Culver.
Efforts to find a listed phone number for Culver were unsuccessful.
The casino is owned and operated by the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe, which is based in Miami. Chief Paul Spicer declined to comment on the lawsuit. Brandon Johnson, attorney for the casino, was unavailable for comment.
According to the petition, Culver was hired in October 2006 to be a member of the count team. Her duties included handling large amounts of cash, and to count the money contained in various slot machine and game table boxes, and report the entire amount contained in each box, the petition states.
For the past three months, Kurt Williams and Drew Word, interim casino managers, began investigating and “ identifying factors contributing to Grand Lake’s (casino ) economic underperformance, ” the petition states.
On Jan. 7, it was discovered that two boxes from slot machines should have contained $ 25, 050, but instead reported $ 3, 745. Two days later, four boxes, also from slot machines, were missing money. They should have contained $ 23, 171, but actually contained $ 12, 776, according the petition.
The petition states each slot machine has an internal device that tracks all of the money inserted into the machine. The device then reports the amount of money contained in each machine at the end of every night, when boxes of money in each machine are pulled out and taken to the count room and assigned to a member of the count team who then physically counts the money in the assigned boxes.
A surveillance videotape showed Culver was the count team member assigned to each of the boxes with the shortages. On Feb. 3 and 4, a surveillance camera showed Culver taking money from the boxes, the petition alleges.
Reports back through Sept. 10 showed $ 421, 597 was missing, and that Culver was the only employee who was working in the count room on the date of each instance of missing money, the petition states.
Because Culver is still a casino employee, the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe also sought a restraining order prohibiting her from withdrawing, transferring, spending, disposing or hiding any misappropriated funds or property bought with misappropriated funds. The restraining order remains in effect until Feb. 26 after a preliminary hearing is held, court records show.
The theft is not under criminal investigation by the Delaware County Sheriff’s Department, said Sheriff Jay Blackfox. Blackfox said there is not an agreement with the tribe, and any criminal investigation would be handled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
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