Just a few weeks before a cashier at the Monarch Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado allegedly stole $500,000 on March 12, casino officials agreed to pay a $400,000 fine for purported criminal activity by three sports betting employees.
A spokesman for the Colorado Division of Gaming said the fine was one of the highest ever approved by the Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission.
According to the 19-page “stipulation and agreement” filed with the gaming commission, a Monarch Casino sportsbook manager and two employees placed 79 bets totaling $60,769 for people who were not on-site at the casino, including 57 wagers placed for customers who were out of the state. In most of the cases, the employees logged into the customers’ BetMonarch mobile accounts and placed the bets for them in violation of gaming rules.
Gaming Division documents indicate the situation was discovered during the 2022 Stanley Cup Final game between the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning. A few days later, casino administrators seized the work phones of the three suspect employees and turned them over to state regulators. The casino suspended and then fired the employees and “promptly instituted corrective measures to address identified gaps in the division-approved internal control procedures,” the documents state.
The first installment of Monarch’s $400,000 fine was due within 10 days of the February 16 commission meeting. The remaining $200,000 will be held for two years, to be paid if the casino violates any other state regulations during that time.
The casino also agreed to an audit of internal controls and to upgrade its sports betting online geolocation system.
The Division of Gaming spokesperson said the agreement is a “form of progressive discipline,” adding it is “a cooperative agreement between the division and licensee an educational tool to help the licensee comply with gaming statutes and regulations.” She added such an agreement “is “not that common. In a new industry like sports betting, it is used to gain and retain compliance by the licensee, not simply punish them.”
