A defunct problem gambling centre in one of the states at the forefront of US intra state gambling proposals misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Iowa state auditor David Vaudt issued a special audit, which claims $114,211 was misspent by the centre in Davenport.
The Eastern Iowa Center for Problem Gambling was operational up until July 2008 and funded by Iowa’s casino industry and the Iowa Lottery before being abruptly closed.
Of the limited information available, Vaudt was able to decipher that the centre made $87,179 of improper payments including $38,693 for payroll, $4,872 for vacation payouts, and $29,359 for travel payments to the center’s director, Janey Meisenbach.
According to Des Moines Register, Vaudt said: “Several efforts to obtain access to the center’s records were met with resistance from Meisenbach.”
He added, “It was not possible to determine if there were additional improper or unsupported payments because sufficient records were not available.”
Although it isn’t intrinsically linked to gambling and even more loosely online gambling, it’s still likely to affect the perception of gambling in the state. This after there’s already been fear-mongering set off by one publication and you can imagine that some are already starting to think any news is bad news.
As far as the improper payments go, it’s not known yet whether they took inspiration from UK politicians and spunked it all on duck houses and second homes but it would be rather worrying were it to come out that the money actually made its way back into the casino industry. Wouldn’t be such a far-fetched finding.
