Across State Lines

By funding state races, gambling interests have avoided national scrutiny and left a trail nearly impossible to follow -- until now.

June 23, 1997

• Search itemized gambling contributions from 11 states.

The gambling industry deals its campaign contributions "no-peek" style, dodging the national spotlight by pouring millions into state politics, where campaign finance records are spotty and hard to obtain. But now, for the first time anywhere, the MoJo Wire presents an exclusive searchable database that lets you track contributions made by the industry's big players across eleven states.

But beware: This puzzle is missing a lot of pieces. Obtaining a complete set of campaign finance and (sometimes useless) lobbying expenditure reports from all 50 states requires a small fortune and a cross-country trip. Consequently, a state's political givers are often invisible outside its borders.

Within those borders, however, public interest groups have begun tracking contributions by gambling interests in their own states. And a few states now maintain online databases of contribution records.

Since our records were compiled from so many different state and private agencies, they're extremely non-standard. The cross-state database includes contributions from 1992-96, but not all states have figures for each year. Some state records include money spent on ballot initiatives, some have lobbying expenditures figured in. But now you can start to see which gambling interests -- say, Circus Circus, Harrah's, or Eddie DeBartolo Jr. -- are betting it all on politics.

Web Exclusives:

Heavy Betting
An exclusive investigation of the gambling industry's state-by-state political contributions.

Across State Lines
Track gambling interests political contributions across 11 states.

Ea$y Money: The Documentary
See exclusive video clips from the FRONTLINE and Mother Jones Television co-production.

Fun Facts
Test your knowledge about gambling.

From the Magazine:

Ea$y Money
With exploding profits, the gambling industry is investing in politics.

All Bets Are Off
Citizens groups have won some key battles in the gambling wars.

World Wide Wagering
On the Internet, it's already possible to lose your shirt from your desktop, and more gambling sites are in the works.

Hot!Media
See Hot!media for more resources.