Audit warns of possible thefts at Lac du Flambeau casino

The National Indian Gaming Commission audit said a low take from the Lake of the Torches blackjack tables last year "can be indicative of theft by employees, patrons, management or others," according to a three-page letter outlining the findings.

The letter was obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which published the findings in today's editions.

Tribal Vice Chairman Henry "Butch" St. Germaine said Tuesday most of the problems have been corrected.

Asked whether employee theft had been uncovered, the tribal leader said, "There's different things (that) always come up, but we get on it right away."

The tribe's practice of having the tribal council do double duty by acting as its own tribal Gaming Commission, a practice that's strongly discouraged by federal regulators, also came under fire in the audit.

By holding both roles, "the tribal council becomes an ineffective regulator of the casino," the audit said

St. Germaine disagreed.

"As far as we can see, there's no problem," he said. "That's one way for us to keep up on everything that's going on over there."

The audit also said the casino did not write accounting reports showing sources of revenue by department, making it "difficult if not impossible" to detect wrongdoing from the casino reports.

The casino also lacked an internal auditor for monitoring money handling practices, the report says. One was recently hired, St. Germaine said.

archive