A former Gun Lake Casino employee who stole over $84,000 from the casino was sentenced this week.
Jordan Lewis Cook was sentenced to four months in jail for his crimes.
Further, Cook will also have to pay $84,564 in restitution for the money he stole while clearing out jams in cash-out machines.
The former employee was indicted in March and accepted a plea deal in September.
Cook stole from Gun Lake 32 times over 14 months
As part of Cook’s plea deal in September, he admitted in written form that he stole from Gun Lake Casino on 32 separate occasions.
Specifically, Cook was responsible for unclogging cash-out machines that got jammed.
Cook opened the machines and removed the cassettes holding the money. He would remove any crinkled or misfed currency from the machines.
And, he would then place the jammed currency back into the cassettes. At that time, Cook would then steal some of the cash from the machine for himself.
Over a 14-month span, Cook stole $84,564 from Gun Lake. He admitted to using the funds for his own personal use.
Notably, the charge of theft from an Indian Tribal Organization can carry up to a five-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.
And, the four-month sentence Cook received also includes two years of supervised release following his jail sentence.
Noteworthy 2023 for Gun Lake Casino
While this theft certainly dominated headlines at Gun Lake Casino throughout 2023, a lot of other newsworthy events occurred during the year.
This summer, Gun Lake Casino was named Best Casino by Revue Magazine as part of its “Best of the West” readers’ poll.
In a look at the top retail casino jackpots of 2023, Gun Lake Casino was responsible for the second-biggest jackpot of the year. A $727,271 prize was won on Aug. 28 at the casino.
Also, Gun Lake had three of the top 15 jackpots of the year in Michigan.
And, Gun Lake is also in the thick of its renovation project. Specifically, the upgrades will bring a 252-room hotel and an aquadome to the property.
The indoor pool complex will be 32,000 square feet and contain three pools. The pools can be transformed into a concert venue as well.
This project broke ground in May of 2022 and is targeted to be finished in early 2025.
