Who Are the Gambling Lobbyists?  Sportingbet Among Them

As reported Thursday here at Gambling911.com, the gambling lobbyists are working hard on behalf of legalized gambling, but they are no friends to the online gambling industry.

The American Gaming Association, a trade group that represents the casino industry, spent $1.7 million in 2007 to lobby the federal government on Internet gambling legislation.

The trade group, which opposes legislative proposals that would preempt state authority to regulate gambling, spent $800,000 on lobbying in the second half of the year, according to a disclosure form posted online last week by the Senate's public records office.

So who are these gambling lobbyists?

One was a British online gambling firm, Sportingbet, whose contribution was rather small in the whole scheme of things.  The company has been active over the years, however, and one of the few to make any type of lobbying effort on the industry's behalf. 

PartyGaming spent $400,000 in lobbying before they were chased out of the US market.  The Interactive Gaming Council spent over $400,000.

Gambling911.com investigated and found that the top contributors were:

Rank	Organization	Amount	Dems	Repubs	Source Indivs PACs Soft $
1	MGM Mirage	$590,707	52%	48%
2	Station Casinos	$237,900	18%	82%
3	Las Vegas Sands	$200,900	0%	100%
4	Harrah's Entertainment	$171,000	78%	22%
5	Pechanga Band of Mission Indians	$124,900	87%	13%
6	Viejas Tribal Government	$115,400	76%	24%
7	Boyd Gaming	$113,430	68%	32%
8	National Thoroughbred Racing Assn	$104,000	59%	41%
9	Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians	$98,700	71%	29%
10	Morongo Band of Mission Indians	$95,823	90%	10%
11	Miccosukee Tribe	$92,260	97%	3%
12	Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe	$89,300	84%	16%
13	Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation	$83,500	83%	17%
14	Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians	$80,200	88%	12%
15	Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Tribe	$79,500	78%	22%
16	Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indian	$76,500	92%	8%
17	Puyallup Tribe of Indians	$71,100	100%	0%
18	Wynn Resorts	$69,900	44%	56%
19	Chickasaw Nation	$67,670	87%	13%
20	Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation	$67,400	58%	42%

By contrast, the American Gaming Association in 2004 along with the Gila River Indian Community and a few other tribes donated in excess of a million dollars in 2004. 

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