Billionaire Neil Bluhm of Rivers Casino has waged war with the industry leaders, seeking to rid the field of top competition. FanDuel and DraftKings are responding with a $1 million multi-platform awareness and education campaign.
Over the next five days, advocacy advertisements will air on radio broadcast and cable, state- and city-wide, including morning and evening news, late-night talk shows and live sporting events. There will also be a multichannel digital engagement campaign across social media, search, YouTube and over-the-top streaming providers, including Hulu, Roku and radio providers like Spotify and Pandora.
It’s a strong, final push against Bluhm, who is singlehandedly pressing for legislation that ostensibly protects the interests of his own properties at the expense of Illinois’ coffers.
Illinois is in debt. But there is hope in a significant amount of tax revenue with online sports betting.
In order to benefit from this, we must allow those who are experienced in the digital gaming arena to compete in our state.
But there is a casino owned by a billionaire that wants to keep them out, which will compromise tax revenue for Illinois.
Now they want to use their political muscle to box out the competition so they can profit, reducing the tax dollars our state can make from online betting.
Don’t let Rivers Casino muddy the waters.
* Paul Gaynor, the outside counsel for Midwest Gaming and Rush Street Interactive (Bluhm’s guy)…
It’s not surprising that Fan Duel and Draft Kings are spending $1 million to try and buy a duopoly after years of engaging in conduct that the Attorney General concluded clearly constituted illegal gambling, without following regulations, paying taxes or paying licensing fees. Now they want to be rewarded for their improper behavior and put in front of the line ahead of gaming entities who complied with the law and regulations, paid taxes and put thousands of Illinois residents to work. While we support the legalization of sports betting, what we don’t support are companies that brazenly operate outside the rules, which is why a regulatory waiting period would ensure the integrity of sports betting and that they fully and readily comply with the same strict regulations already being followed by existing gaming operators.
*** UPDATE *** Marc La Vorgna, spokesman for Bet on Illinois…
At the governor’s request, the ad is being suspended for the time being while we engage in productive discussions to deliver smart sports betting legislation before the session ends.
* Related…
* FanDuel CEO says ‘Illinois needs to pass a bill’ for sports betting
