Have you noticed all those sportsbook gambling ads on TV? They are quickly becoming the biggest advertisers at any sporting event. Even Golf! Now these electronic bookies are underwriting mailings and television ads promoting political candidates. It is happening in South Alabama.
When you see a plan that is working, follow it. Big gambling is following the model of Big Pharma. It’s a fairly simple model. Use your sizable profits to acquire more market power with generous advertising budgets. Simultaneously, use those profits to acquire more political power. Then utilize that political power to protect and expand that market power. Notwithstanding President Trump‘s heroic efforts, it is the principal reason that Americans continue to pay more for prescription drugs than any industrialized country in the world.
We are seeing the Pharma formula play out here in deep red South Alabama. A group calling itself The American Conservative Fund is spending heavily to re-elect two local Republican legislators.
Hmmm?
Baldwin County is about as safe a place for conservative legislators as there is in the country. Finding multiple slick mailers in our mailbox, one wonders what this is all about. Now we are seeing television ads. The advertising touts the wonderful job these state legislators are doing. Republicans who are in safe districts. “They support the second amendment, and restrictions on abortion. But most of all they stand squarely with President Trump in combatting illegal immigration.”
As if we didn’t already know that?
Why the carpet bombing with this well-coordinated marketing plan? Where is all this money coming from? Do you smell a rat?
Well, after just a little research, we now have a pretty good idea concerning what’s actually going on. All that money isn’t coming from a good government group only interested in helping to elect solid MAGA Republicans in safe districts. They hide behind the moniker American Conservative Fund, but it might be more accurate to call them the Gambling Anonymous PAC. They promote legalizing more gambling while remaining anonymous.
The American Conservative Fund takes money from the big sportsbook websites like FanDuel and DraftKings. It’s hard to calculate just how much money they are spending. According to reports filed with the Alabama Secretary of State’s office, in addition to their independent expenditures, SV and B PAC have reportedly donated over $718,000 directly to legislative candidates in Alabama just since January of 2025. That money came almost exclusively from the same actors.
Whether or not this is completely legal is for others to judge. But, hiding behind names that have nothing to do with your special interest seems a bit…deceptive.
Deception is a critical component of all gambling. The promoters must convince the suckers that luck will smile on them. So, take a chance. But they know that the house always wins. Grandma said luck comes from Lucifer, blessings come from God.
When you boil it all down, gambling is primarily a wealth transfer scheme. It transfers from the many to reward the few, after the house takes its cut, of course. Even Socrates opined against gambling, saying that it was a nonproductive activity. It produces nothing and encourages laziness. Today’s sportsbook gambling is perhaps the most pernicious of all forms. Players can lose their next paycheck from the convenience of their phones. Families will be torn apart. Homes and even businesses will be at risk. With millions being wagered, we are also in danger of undermining the integrity of even our amateur sports.
Please don’t take my word for it. My friend Dr. Greg Ganske, a retired plastic surgeon and a fellow former Member of Congress, has written and spoken about the medical, psychological and cultural problems that these new electronic gambling platforms present. Greg was a pretty good amateur athlete as well. He recently did an interview with another friend, Newt Gingrich, on Newt’s Podcast. You can listen to it by clicking here:
The sportsbook groups are spending heavily on legislative races all around the country. They want to elect people who will vote with them on gambling initiatives. Several people are sounding the alarm here in Alabama. Whether it will do any good remains anybody’s guess. But this I can promise. Those legislators elected with the generous support of these gambling interests and then decide to vote to open the floodgates of this Pandora’s Box had better prepare a letter to their constituents explaining why.
Because they will be asked.
The author served in both the Minnesota Legislature and the U.S. Congress. He now lives in South Alabama.