Thursday, June 10, 1999 | 10:57 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- A high level Las Vegas casino executive acknowledged Wednesday he had a four-year association with a prostitute but denied he tipped her off about an undercover police sting operation at a Strip hotel in 1995.
Frank Tutera, senior vice president of casino marketing for the Rio hotel-casino, was close to being found unsuitable for a license by the state Gaming Control Board at its hearing in Carson City. But the board agreed to examine further evidence that an illness may have led to many inconsistencies in his story about the event at the MGM Grand, where he was a casino host.
Tutera told the board he was "deeply embarrassed" about the incident in February 1995 but added that is the only bad mark in his 15 years in the Nevada gambling industry.
Tutera testified he knew Valerie Carp from 1991-95 and had sex with her once. Carp was identified by police as a Las Vegas prostitute and madam. In 1996, she was placed on probation for her part in the prostitution ring in Las Vegas and she died earlier this year of cancer.
On Feb. 17, 1995, Tutera said he received a call from Carp in the early evening at the casino. She wanted to know about a customer named "Durante" who was in one of the high roller suites at the MGM. Tutera said Carp described "Durante" as a hippy and "kinky" and she was nervous about sending up a girl to the room.
Tutera kept Carp on the telephone while he checked the hotel computer, which had no record of "Durante" being a gambler who was entitled to one of the rooms. He told her there was no record that this "Durante" was a high-end player.
Later Tutera received a telephone call from his superior, Bob Moon, who had been told about the computer check. "He (Moon) told me to forget about the suite. It's a vice string." Durante was an undercover police officer and the operation never materialized.
As time passed that night, Tutera said he got "angrier and angrier" and called Carp to tell her not to involve him in these things. He denied he ever tipped her off. The casino executive suggested that Carp may have "put two and two together" from the first telephone conversation and figured out this was a string.
"I cursed her out for getting me involved," he said.
Carp also kept an extensive log of her business and customers and Tutera is mentioned several times under a column of "Referred." But Tutera said he never steered any customers to Carp. He suggested his name may have appeared because they both knew the same people.
Tutera and Carp occasionally had lunch and carried on a friendship for the four years. He described her as a "troubled person, an alcoholic, a compulsive gambler." He said he went with her to one AA meeting, where she got an award for being sober for five years.
But she was in Las Vegas casinos every night gambling. He said he tried to get her to refrain from gambling but was unsuccessful.
Board members questioned Tutera about an incident involving high roller Kerry Packer of Australia in September 1994. Carp knew Packer was coming to the MGM the day before he arrived. Board members suggested that Tutera may have alerted Carp that Packer would be in town. Later he introduced Carp to Packer, but there was never any sex between the two.
Yet there was a notation in Carp's diary that she had to pay Tutera 50 percent of everything she got from Packer.
Tutera said he used to joke with hotel employees at the MGM that he should get 50 percent of the generous tips Packer handed out. For instance, Packer gave a $125,000 to a cocktail waitress and $40,000 to a doorman. He said he may have made a joke with Carp and that she could have taken it seriously. But he said he never got any money from Carp.
"Packer did nothing wrong. I'm sorry his name is being mentioned. He doesn't deserve it. I made a bad joke and it has come back to haunt me," Tutera said.
In her diary, Carp described Tutera as an "emotional vampire." Tutera told the board Carp "probably knew she could maneuver me. She played me like a fish. I allowed myself to be manipulated."
He admitted he used "poor personal judgment" in his association with her but said he never helped her in her business. Out of the telephone incident, Tutera said he got a letter of reprimand and it probably cost him a promotion at the MGM.
Tutera was also questioned about three illegal bookmakers from the Los Angeles area who came to Las Vegas to gamble. He said he was subpoenaed by a grand jury in California to produce the casino records of these individuals but he never had any association with them.
When questioned about the three, Tutera said they were not on the list of excluded persons who are barred from casinos and there were many illegal bookmakers who visit the gambling halls in Las Vegas.
Board Chairman Steve DuCharme said there has been a "whole series of inconsistencies" in the testimony of Tutera to state agents investigating the application. He said these involved dates and times and there appears to be a "lack of candor" on the part of Tutera.
He said Tutera has "not exhibited the kind of conduct we expect" and he has not met "the standard of suitability" required of a person who wants a gaming license.
As the board got ready to vote an apparent denial, Tutera's attorney Michael Bonner produced a letter from a physician that the casino host had "memory problems" because of a case of meningitis. Tutera said, "I've had trouble with my memory. That is not unusual from the effects of meningitis. I run incidents together."
During his prior questioning, Tutera had dates and times wrong.
Bonner asked that the application be referred back for further investigation. And DuCharme agreed that Tutera should have "every opportunity" to explain his actions.
Tutera has worked in Las Vegas casinos since 1984, first at the Tropicana, then Caesars' Palace, then the MGM and finally the Rio since 1997.
Prior to joining the Rio -- a unit of Harrah's Entertainment -- Tutera was involved in staging golf tournaments.
Bonner presented a letter to the board at the beginning of the meeting that Tiger Woods and his father Earl are asking Tutera to be a tournament director for an event New Year's Eve. He said that is under consideration by the PGA.
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