© Provided by Twin Cities Pioneer Press Customers open pull tabs at the West St. Paul Commercial Club on Thursday, February 9, 2012. (Ben Garvin / Pioneer Press)
The former gambling manager for the White Bear Lake Hockey Association is accused of “secretly” starting a competing gambling consulting firm and setting out to take the association’s business prior to her resignation.
A lawsuit filed this week against Christine Olson further alleges that she “destroyed” the association’s business records and her email before resigning March 28.
“Defendants’ unlawful and tortious conduct has caused and continues to cause significant injury to the Association, including irreparable harm,” states the Ramsey County District Court lawsuit alleging breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, unfair competition and civil theft.
An attorney for Olson, 54, is not listed in court documents, and she did not return a call left for her Wednesday seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Like many nonprofit youth sports organizations, the White Bear Lake Hockey Association’s main fundraising is the sale of pull tabs and bingo gaming in bars and restaurants. Profits help keep player fees down.
Olson was a full-time employee of the association for about 12 years — her salary was $129,000 last year — and she held the gambling license to carry out its fundraising, according to the lawsuit.
Big operation
The association’s gambling operation is a big one in the community. A 2021 audit report shows the enterprise generated just shy of $31 million in revenue, with about $4.6 million in net revenue and just over $871,000 in profit, according to the lawsuit. Last year, the association’s gambling profit decreased to $680,387, despite an increase in revenue.
The lawsuit alleges Olson planned her resignation and the “demise” of the association’s gambling revenue, including by forming her own company, Minnesota Gambling Consultants, last October. According to a state filing, the business was registered Oct. 10 as a limited liability company, with its office listed as Olson’s Hugo home.
Olson interfered with the association’s relationships with its gambling partners, vendors, employees and members, and used the association’s confidential information “to benefit her in a new position designed to take away all of the Association’s gambling business relationships,” the lawsuit alleges.
Association board members say they have not been able to find copies of contracts with bars and restaurants since her resignation.
Olson is also accused of deleting her email. What remained was one email, which she sent to a vendor three hours after she resigned. In it, she wrote she was “going to move this conversation to my other email” and provided the vendor the new email address, according to the lawsuit.
Termination letters
The next day, Olson sent an email to gambling operation employees about an “emergency meeting,” where she told them she was now working for a St. Paul nonprofit and that she had recruited four restaurants and bars, according to the lawsuit. She asked employees if they wanted to work with her.
The association says it has since received signed form letters from restaurants and bars seeking to terminate gambling operations. “Not only are these letters identical, but they are also all dated March 27, 2023 — while Olson remained a WBLAHA employee,” the lawsuit states. “Upon information and belief, Olson either told the bar owners what to put in their termination letters or she prepared the letters for them, all while she was still an officer and employee of the Association.”
The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and an injunction requiring Olson to return all confidential information and property in her possession and restraining her from soliciting association business partners, vendors and employees for one year.