Mac played 4 slots at a time

(CNS):The former premier of the Cayman Islands was sometimes playing as many as four slot machines simultaneously, according to the Seminole Casino records of his loyalty cards. As McKeeva Bush returned to the court Thursday morning in his trial for abuse of his government credit card, the crown called a casino witness from the Seminole chain who revealed that Bush, now opposition leader, was an ‘Exclusive’ member of the casino group, based in Florida, which was the highest of the five levels of membership attainable. The court also heard that on some of his visits to the Seminole casinos Bush’s loyalty cards were in several slots at the same time for as much as eight or nine hours in one night to early morning session.

Tracey Almeida from the casino chain explained the loyalty card records and how they kept track of the casino’s customers' gaming activities, including their wins and losses and the time they spent on machines and how many they were using at any given time.

The documents produced by Seminole for the case, which were explained by Almeida, recorded the net losses and wins that Bush incurred when he was using his loyalty card on his visits to three of the group's casinos in Florida during business and some personal trips between July 2009 and April 2010.

The records showed considerable net losses for the former premier in some of his gambling session through the night and early hours of the morning, where he was using two, three and on some occasions four slots at a time.

During theperiod in question Bush is said by the crown to have a net loss of some $270,000 over nine months and he is charged with using the government’s credit card to obtain some of the cash fed into the machines. The loyalty card records showed Bush suffering net losses during some of his visits to casinos in 2010 in particular, reaching as much as $60,000 over a two or three day trip.

With as much as $400,000 over the time frame that the case against Bush covers being gambled, the judge, who declared himself unfamiliar with casinos, asked Almeida to explain the physical logistics of putting that amount of money into machines.

The casino executive said that the machines themselves had different levels of wagers, varying from as little as a penny for one spin up to a minimum wager in some slot machines of a $1000. She explained that the slot machines take dollar bills and customers can also load cash onto specially designed tickets that can be fed into a slot machine and record the customer’s credit. That way a gamer can put in thousands of dollars, she said, and play as much as they want, with any winnings being added to the credit total and recorded on the ticket, which can then be redeemed.

The opposition leader is facing 11 counts of abuse of office relating to the misuse of his government issued credit card between July 2009 and April 2010, during which time he is accused of withdrawing various cash amounts on the card in ATMs and cashier cages in casinos in Florida, Vegas and the Bahamas.

As a result of various issues relating to witnesses, legal discussions and the defence attorney’s diary, the Bush case was adjourned on Thursday morning following the evidence from the casino executive until Tuesday.