Lucky Winner’s Not Lucky After All

Tue., Oct. 14, 1997

By Tracy Ellig tracye@spokesman.com

The Two Rivers Casino at Fort Spokane raffled off a $27,000 Dodge truck on Saturday, but took it back after learning the winner was an employee.

Since late August, the Spokane Indian tribe’s casino had been giving gamblers a raffle ticket for the truck if they won more than $100, said Aaron Scott, assistant manager.

There was to be “no employee participation whatsoever” in the truck giveaway, Scott said.

But an unidentified woman who works in the casino filled out about 40 tickets with her boyfriend’s name. She had them stuffed in with the legitimate tickets, Scott said.

When the lucky ticket was drawn Saturday, she was there to claim her prize. In fact, she was so excited she asked for time off, Scott said.

Instead, she has been disciplined. Scott would not say what kind of discipline, and he wouldn’t say if the woman still is working at the casino.

“It looked really bad for us to have an employee jumping up and down saying she’d won,” Scott said.

The casino’s marketing department will be sending letters to all legitimate ticket holders informing them of another drawing at 4 p.m. Nov. 1. That drawing will contain only the legitimate tickets from Saturday.

, DataTimes

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