Spirit Mountain Casino has another clean audit

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals editor

Spirit Mountain Casino posted another year of zero findings for its recent audit results.

CEO Camille Mercier said that these are “driven by the coordinated efforts of employees across all departments, who play a critical role in maintaining compliance, accuracy and operational excellence.”

She noted that the casino’s audit and corporate finance employees play a particularly pivotal role by performing daily reconciliations, verifying transactions and ensuring financial records are accurate, complete and audit ready.

“Their ongoing work behind the scenes creates a strong foundation that supports both internal controls and external audit engagements,” Mercier said. “Across the operation, team members contribute by maintaining accurate documentation, following established procedures and supporting auditor requests with transparency and professionalism. This collective commitment to discipline and accountability is what enables Spirit Mountain Casino to consistently achieve outstanding, finding-free audit results and operate at a level that exceeds industry standards.”

This is the fourth finding-free audit in a row for the casino during the years that REDW Advisors & CPAs has been conducting the audit, according to REDW Principal Adam Smith.

“We have not had material procedural findings within the casino for approximately four years,” Smith said. “This is very rare. Probably looking at the top 10% of gaming facilities nationally where they have not had issues/findings in their audits. It’s not uncommon for a casino to have findings, usually due to new staff and training issues, but that’s not been the case (here).”

REDW conducts the annual financial audit of the casino as well as internal testing to help ensure that casino operating procedures meet or exceed industry standards.

Additionally, it was noted that SMC’s operating profit margin of approximately 35% is higher than the casino average of approximately 26% for 2025.

“The integrity and success of our external audit findings are a direct reflection of our personnel’s commitment to accountability by aligning their daily workflows with the specific compliance guidelines set forth in the organizations policies,” an emailed comment from the casino stated.

REDW performs internal control audits for approximately 100 casinos nationwide, both Tribal and commercial, as well as financial audits for 80.

In general terms, a casino audit includes examining and reviewing various documents and processes and is governed by multiple regulatory and professional authorities.

“First, the testing of the casino’s operating procedures takes about a month with a week onsite performing walkthroughs of casino processes and comparing to industry standards,” Smith said.  “Second, the financial audit, which occurs after year end and takes approximately two months. This entails obtaining financial details and activity from the year and verifying to source documents. For example, confirming purchases, reviewing bank statements, confirming cash on hand, distributions to the Tribe and related parties.”

The auditors also confirm net win calculations for gaming, cash counted, hotel, food and beverage sales, he added.

“We create a balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement to show the casino’s assets, liabilities, revenue, expenses and cash activity,” he said.  

The casino is required to provide auditors access to areas across the property, access to all team members and all requested paperwork, which ranges from electronic and paper files from several departments to daily gaming paperwork, internal audits and any regulatory correspondence.

According to the casino, the audit requires review of more than 300 entries including revenue, expense, liability, cash accounts, receivables, billings, assets, loans and dividends to determine the reliability, accuracy and compliance of financial statements with the laws, regulations and accounting standards.