Playing with the house’s money…

Most of the time, when you’re playing with the house’s money, it means that you’ve won enough times to keep playing using just your gambling winnings. The phrase took on a different meaning last week for PokerTek (PTEK), a maker of automatic poker tables for casinos everywhere. According to this late Friday 8-K, it seems that one of PTEK’s executives might have been playing with the house’s money in a slightly different way.

PTEK said that during a “regular external gaming review”, they became aware that Chris Daniels, the Company’s CFO, may have inappropriately used the corporate credit card for personal purchases. Speaking through his attorney, Daniels said that his conduct was “consistent with historical practices” and offered to reimburse the company for the charges, which he termed “minimal”.

Looks like Daniels will have a few more days to devote to playing the tables. In the 8-K, it was noted that the Audit Committee commenced an independent investigation of the historical use of corporate credit cards. Daniels has been placed on administrative leave pending the results of that investigation.

Posted in Perk city

1 Comment »

One Response to “Playing with the house’s money…”

1. David J Phillips Says:
   August 28th, 2007 at 1:31 am

   Michelle:

   Plaudits to you for unearthing this abuse! It did not, however, surprise me. To wit:

   last year I did due diligence on PokerTek and uncovered other red flags, too.
   (1) PokerTek’s Chairman, Lyle Berman, is also the CEO of Lakes Entertainment, Inc. (LACO), a Minnesota-based publicly traded company whose primary business is managing tribal casinos, and Executive Chairman of WPT Enterprises, Inc. (WPTE), the operator of the World Poker Tour. Talk about managing one’s time?
   (2) Management has consistently ‘downplayed’ the fact that a key component of the PokerPro gaming system architecture is licensed from a third party, Standing Stone Gaming, an operating unit of the NY Oneida Indian Nation, for its Oneida II Lite software. This is a NON-EXCLUSIVE SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT…. and given the limited barriers to entry, the 10Q Detective believes that it is highly likely that a company with greater resources—like an International Game Technology (IGT)—could easily supplant the PokerPro system with directly competitive products.

   http://10qdetective.blogspot.com/2006/02/pokertek-inc-dealt-bad-hand-fold.html

   As always — keep on dishin’ out the good stuff!

   Warmly,
   David J. Phillips, Publisher
   http://www.10qdetective.blogspot.com