The Kansas Constitution explicitly states that “schemes for distribution of prize by chance,” or gambling operations, are “forever illegal” in the state of Kansas. Despite that nearly 170-year-old rule, online sports gambling organizations have found a cutout that allows them to legally operate in the state, and now that they are in, they are spending ludicrous amounts of money in state congressional races to make sure the state does what they want.
DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, and Bet365 have indirectly spent nearly $500,000 in Kansas state primaries this year alone through a Super PAC called American Conservative Fund, according to the organization’s campaign finance report. In each of these races, their contributions alone dwarf the typical total amount spent in a state-level election.
In 2022, the Kansas state legislature passed a bill which legalized sports wagering by requiring gambling companies to operate through four state-owned lotteries. This bypassed the constitutional ban on gambling operations, and it tied the interests of sports betting companies to Kansas state politics.
Because the lotteries are technically state-owned, a portion of the revenue collected by gambling companies is given to the state, which then uses those funds as appropriated by their budget. The problem with this system is that gambling companies have an incentive to try to control how those funds are spent.
“They wanted the funding to go to the items that they chose, versus having it actually go to funding schools and things like that where other states use their lottery funding,” Kansas Representative Samantha Poetter Parshall told The Federalist. “They didn’t want that to change, so they’re worried about what’s being done with the tax revenue.”
According to Poetter Parshall, 80 percent of the tax revenue the state collects from its lotteries goes to the Attracting Professional Sports to Kansas Fund, which is “aimed at supporting professional sports teams and facilities in the state.” They are currently involved in a major deal between the Kansas government and the Kansas City Chiefs which will spend nearly $2 billion to help build the team a new professional football stadium.
The Attracting Professional Sports to Kansas Fund received $13.4 million of state lottery revenue in fiscal year 2025, and is projected to exceed $14 million this year. For sports betting companies, this arrangement means that the way the state spends its tax dollars constantly funnels more Kansans into their industry, and any changes to how the state spends that money could eat into their profits.
In 2025, the Kansas state legislature had a chance to include a provision in the state budget that would allow them to review and potentially change how the lottery funds were being used each year.
According to Poetter Parshall, the gambling operations opposed this provision because they did not want the legislature to be able to examine what was being done with tax revenue raised from sports betting. If passed, the elected representatives of the state could cut back the amount of money going to the sports and entertainment industry that feeds the sports betting companies. The provision failed in 2025, but with the 2026 midterms approaching, they needed to ensure that their desired line items would stay in the state budget.
As a result, these sports betting companies started a major spending campaign to deluge Kansas state primaries and elevate politicians into office who they believe will protect their influence over state spending.
“Now it’s just out of control,” Poetter Parshall said. “The last election cycle, you didn’t see nearly this amount of money put into any race. I’ve never seen a state house race in Kansas with $150,000 dropped into it, but basically anyone that they thought they would be able to sway their vote got a lot of money.”
These companies have no legal spending limits, and they have decided it is worth spending overwhelming dollars in Kansas alone to elevate their favored politicians.
Another source who has worked in Kansas state politics for multiple decades told The Federalist that in his experience, “in a State House general election, really hot races would have $25,000 spent, and primaries have a lot less than that. But they came in, and just this one group eclipsed all the spending for all the parties.”
According to the same source, in some races that saw three or four total campaign mailers just two years ago, particular candidates are seeing over $70,000 spent in opposition ads and mailers put out against them. He told The Federalist that a primary challenger named Mike Storm had mailers and a swarm of digital ads sent out against him by American Conservative Fund in a race that only saw a total of around 3,000 votes. The race was decided by 119 votes, and the losing candidate faced a storm of special interest opposition ads paid for by international companies that can spend more than he ever could.
In another race, incumbent Kenneth Collins received over $61,000 from these gambling interests, and his challenger Dan Muter quickly questioned what the companies contributing to his campaign were trying to buy with their support.
“Ken hasn’t had to spend one dime on all the mailers, the internet and TV ads, the handbills and the college kids paid to distribute them, the texts and all the other advertising on his behalf. Not one dime,” Muter told the Kansas Reflector. “They’re all paid for by the American Conservative Fund. Every dime. They’re paying for his campaign in gratitude for his past support and to ensure his future support.”
Their political messaging has nothing to do with gambling policy, but DraftKings and Bet365 are not getting conservatives elected to protect the border or to secure elections. The fact that their actual policy interests are hidden beneath the surface of their positionally vague but monetarily significant support for these candidates makes their spending campaign even more dangerous.
According to the American Conservative Fund website, the values they look for in Republican candidates include “protecting our neighborhoods,” “cutting taxes and fees,” and “less government bureaucracy.” However, the money trail shows that their interests have nothing to do with conservative values, and their financiers will support candidates of either party who they believe will give them what they want.
American Conservative Fund did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment about its goals and transparency standards.
American Conservative Fund is financed by the Win For America PAC, which was formed and is exclusively funded by DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, and Bet365 “to support sports betting throughout the country.” Win For America also contributes millions of dollars to a Democratic PAC called American Future, whose equally vague priorities including things like “affordability” and “protecting vulnerable communities.” American Future has spent over $500,000 this year in the Kansas gubernatorial race.
The common denominator between the two opposing political action organizations is that they are both funded by the same online gambling conglomerates who have an interest in promoting loose sports gambling policy in state legislatures.
According to the Federal Elections Commission, the Win For America PAC has spent nearly $70 million since November 2025 “to support sports betting throughout the country,” mostly through their Republican and Democratic political action organizations, American Conservative Fund and American Future.
In an unsurprising admission, the American Future PAC, whose website and messaging makes no mention of sports gambling, told Atlanta Civic Circle that its goal is to support candidates who will be warm to policies that make or keep online sports gambling legal.
When questioned about their spending in a state where sports gambling is currently illegal, American Future said that “in states across the country, legal online sports wagering provides an important source of tax revenue that supports priorities like education — not to mention contributing to job growth and other community investment. We seek candidates who will thoughtfully approach this opportunity and the revenue and jobs legal sports betting could provide.”
American Future did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.
In Georgia, a state which has not legalized sports gambling, the gambling companies’ Super PAC is the top independent spender in this year’s state-level elections, dumping over $10 million into primary races behind candidates on both sides of the aisle. American Conservative Fund has spent nearly $8 million to back 29 Republican congressional candidates, and American Future has spent around $2.3 million to promote 10 Democrats for office. That is an average of over $250,000 per candidate they support in Georgia state primaries.
This kind of spending campaign is nothing new for the gambling industry. Sports betting was mostly illegal under federal law until 2018, but in the last eight years, gambling companies have engaged in a massive lobbying campaign “leading to the fastest expansion of legalized gambling in American history.” As of 2026, some form of sports gambling is legal in 35 states and Washington D.C.
The theme among the races that Win For America has chosen to meddle in is that their funding alone overwhelms the entire race, leaving their opponents to fight from hundreds of thousands of dollars behind. In an effort to expand their influence, they are trying to buy races in states like Kansas, Georgia, Alabama, Maryland, Texas, and Pennsylvania, and they are slated to be one of the biggest spenders in the 2026 midterm elections. But because the American Conservative Fund and American Future are not explicitly attaching gambling to their messaging, the fact that private gambling interests are spending millions to push their policy on you is completely hidden.
