SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dave Kolpack, AP) – The former marketing director for a casino on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in the Dakotas has been sentenced for a scheme to give club rewards to gamblers in exchange for drugs.
Forty-two-year-old Candace Crow Ghost, of Fort Yates, North Dakota, pleaded guilty in August to theft by an employee of an Indian gaming establishment.
Authorities say Crow Ghost hatched a plan to obtain prescription pain pills by adjusting points on individual players club rewards cards to pay for the drugs she was receiving. In addition, she allegedly gave away free rooms and meals at the Grand River Casino.
U.S. District Judge Ron Parsons of South Dakota sentenced Crow Ghost to more than five months in prison. She was ordered to pay back about $5,300 to the casino.