Dutiful Son Takes Stand

Mike Tipton took the stand Thursday in the case involving his mother and the Waco Bingo Hall. His mother, Rita Tipton, and another woman – Gloria Williams - are accused of bingo fraud, tax evasion, and mail fraud. Witnesses for the prosecution testified that they don’t know how checks they wrote out to the hall ended up in the personal accounts of the two women. They say that although they cashed checks there, sometimes even payroll checks, they did not write checks out to either of the two women on trial.

The defendants had accounts with several other casinos from other states, and those casinos reviewed their records to see what the win/loss reports would show for the women. Partial reports showed that they had losses of more than $100,000, but their attorney, Michael Dean, claims that the reports are completely inaccurate. He said that the cards that they are running the reports on only take into consideration when they use the cards, and do not account for when they just use cash. He also said that there is no way they can track how much of that money is money they won on other slot machines, and how much of it came from their personal bank accounts.  

Mike Tipton, owner of Jackpot Charity Bingo, said that the money given his mother was a gift. He said that he was paying his mother’s expenses from the bingo accounts, and that he said he gave her permission to use the checks, etc. however she needed. He said it was not income; it was just money that he was giving her. He testified that his mother gave him the business at no cost, and that he had given her property at no cost as well. The property where Williams lives is deeded to his mother as well, although Tipton could not recollect how that came to be. The prosecutor accused Tipton of just doing whatever his mother telling him what to do, and that Rita Tipton was actually calling the shots. Mr. Tipton disagreed with the prosecutor.

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