The Empire City at Yonkers Raceway casino suspended four employees amid an expanding investigation into a $350,000 promotional giveaway that may have been allegedly rigged.

The giveaway was first called into question when the casino handed out $350,000 on Aug. 25 as a part of the "Play Off Your Mortgage" promotion.

Raceway General Manager Bob Galterio says that because of a bug in the system, the card readers in the video slot machines malfunctioned, preventing gamblers from using their player?s cards to register for the promotion. When the crowd started to get agitated, some marketing workers panicked, allegedly giving out large sums to well-known high rollers instead of randomly drawing the winners.

The four marketing employees who were linked to the giveaway have been suspended from work and could possibly be fired or even arrested.

Galterio, however, claims criminal activity played no part in the incident.

?There were some members of the marketing staff that may have used poor judgment,? he says.

Galterio adds that casino officials are currently going over two years worth of promotions to determine how many of them, if any, may have been fixed. Casino management is also trying to determine whether some workers took kickbacks from winners of other promotions who paid to get their names picked for thousands of dollars.

The Westchester District Attorney?s Office has been contacted by Raceway management, and some criminal charges may be filed in the future if it will be determined that past promotions have been fixed.

?We?re taking this very seriously, and we want to make sure we have the confidence of our fans and guests,? Galterio says.

Raceway is expected to hold a do-over of the ?Play Off Your Mortgage? giveaway. The date and rules of the promotion, however, are yet to be set by the casino management and state lottery officials.

In the meantime, all promotions will be done on paper, with names being drawn out of a drum instead of using a computer system.

New software is scheduled to be installed in Raceway casino in October, and glitches are expected to be eliminated at that time.

Empire City gamblers say $350K promotion was fixed