A prominent gaming company is on the other side of a contentious fight for online sports betting in Missouri.
Caesars Entertainment has contributed $4 million to the Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment (MADOGA) through three of its land-based casinos, according to a filing with the Missouri Ethics Committee.
MADOGA is a political action committee asking residents to reject Amendment 2, a sports betting ballot initiative that will be voted on by Missourians in November.
According to the document, Caesars made one $1.4 million contribution in the name of Harrah’s in North Kansas City, $1.3 million from both Tropicana St. Louis and Isle of Capri Boonville, and another $156,202 from its Caesars Enterprise Services in Jefferson City.
MADOGA was created on Sept. 10, and the Caesars contribution filing was dated Sept. 13.
Picking a side
Caesars is the only casino operator to knowingly show any sign of legalized Missouri sports betting opposition, although the company has made no public comments so it’s unclear what the precise motive is with the contributions.
Caesars, which operates online sportsbooks in 18 U.S. jurisdictions, is also on the other side of competitors FanDuel and DraftKings, which combined have contributed more than $10 million to the Winning for Missouri Education Committee.
That group, made up of several professional sports teams including the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Chiefs, led the initiative to legalize online wagering in Missouri and acquired more than 300,000 voter signatures to get the issue put on the November ballot.
Uphill battle
The anti-sports betting organization claims that education contributions are not the primary purpose of the pro-wagering coalition.
“This deceptive measure was written by and for the financial benefit of its out-of-state corporate sponsors and funders,” Brooke Foster, a spokesperson for MADOGA, said. “We are building a broad coalition and are prepared to wage a vigorous campaign to educate voters across the state and ensure the measure is defeated.”
Online sports betting has had a hard time gaining traction in Missouri for years. The legislature couldn’t get a legalization bill passed after several tries, in part due to video terminal lottery machines being attached to the attempts.
The Winning for Missouri Education Committee pooled pro teams and sports betting operators as a solution to the legislature issue, but the battle appears far from over in the Show Me State.
