Illegal commission charge against surveillance director

By By Andrew Wareing  June 19, 2006  

The Ontario Provincial Police have arrested and charged Casino Windsor’s director of surveillance Eddie Eugene Gilmore on charges of fraud over $5,000 and procuring of a secret commission. Police began the investigation in September 2005, acting on a tip. He was charged April 19, 2006.

“An individual made us aware there was a possible impropriety,” says detective chief inspector Dave Crane, Investigation and Enforcement Bureau, Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. Crane said he could not comment further on the case since any further information would have to be presented as evidence in court. “It (the allegation) wasn’t from the casino; it was from an individual.”

Holly Ward, director of communications for Windsor Casino refused comment on the case. “I’m not able to comment because it is a criminal investigation.”

The investigation is being conducted in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigations in the United States. Crane says the FBI was contacted in February to assist in the investigation through the U.S. Consulate in Toronto because many of the companies that supply equipment to the security industry are international in scope.

“I’m with the OPP in a contingency that works in partnership with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission which is the regulator,” Crane says. “In this particular investigation, we’re wearing our OPP hat.”

He says police receive these kinds of calls very infrequently.

“It’s very rare,” says Crane. “I’ve been here over two years and this is the first time we’ve had this type of matter. In the industry in Ontario, to say this is ”˜rare’ is an understatement if you consider we have about 18,000 (gaming) licensees in the province.”

Rare perhaps, but an uncomfortable subject for the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) International’s Gaming and Wagering Protection Council, which refused comment on the issue. Officials cited the “caustic” nature of the issue for not commenting on it.

These sorts of things might happen occasionally in the gaming industry, says Canadian Gaming News editor Ivan Sack. However, to work in the gaming industry in Canada, a vendor has to register yearly with individual provincial gaming commissions — a process that can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on the size of the operation and the number of jurisdictions they operate in — and each one requires a clean record.

Thorough police background checks are conducted and anyone who is convicted of a crime is unlikely to be registered. To get charged is enough to have one’s licenses suspended.

“The last thing anyone is going to want to do is something stupid and risk their business,” says Sack. “Sure, if they offer someone a bribe, they may make one sale. But they stand to forfeit their entire business.”

Mike Boyle of VSI CCTV based in Richmond Hill, Ont. says other industries may not have as clean a record.

“This is going on and it’s going on a lot,” he says. “You’re seeing it more and more on a smaller scale but corporations are putting themselves at risk because corporate security/loss prevention directors are ”˜on the take.’”

An equipment supplier bidding on a company’s security project may meet with that company’s security director. The bidding companies are encouraged to offer an incentive such as a cash payment or other items. Either that or the bidding company will try to offer an inducement to allow them to be the winning bid.

Many companies instruct their employees not to accept any kind of gift including something as simple as a bottle of wine and many security directors consider it insulting to be offered cash or gifts. Some consider small things such as that bottle of wine or tickets to a hockey game at a local arena acceptable,  but anything else is “crossing the line,” says Boyle. “If it is something that is going to sway the business to that company, then it’s wrong.”