Gaming attendant avoids conviction for using hotel money to gamble
A Toowoomba gaming attendant has lost his job but avoided a conviction after being caught gambling using $66,000 of a hotel’s money to recoup his own gambling loss.
At the start of this year, Toowoomba’s Portadown Hotel employee Benjamin Naythan Shipp was playing Keno with his own money and was down to his last $20.
When he lost that, he began using the Hotel’s account to try to recoup his loss.
He then won $18,000 after betting $9,000 on Keno’s ‘heads or tails’ option. As he was a registered attendant the bet was cleared by Keno operators.
In total he had placed $66,279 on 127 bets, winning back only $39,160.
After phoning the Keno line to see if he could be paid out in cash, the Keno operators realised the bet was his.
Subsequently he was sacked after admitting what had happened to his employer.
Facing Toowoomba Murri Court on a charge of stealing as a servant, his solicitor Joe Millican said Shipp had panicked, and “kept doubling down” to recoup the loss.
Shipp underwent counselling sessions and visited every hotel in Toowoomba to have himself banned, to avoid the temptation to gamble.
Magistrate Kay Ryan ordered two years’ probation and that Shipp pay the Hotel restitution of $27,119, but no conviction was recorded.
Sheridan Randall, 20th December 2019
