VGW Puts $351,000 Into Alabama Politics, $130,000 of It Behind Tommy Tuberville

New Alabama filings show the Chumba Casino owner gave the Republican governor candidate a further $100,000 on 31 August, $170,000 to a PAC funded by DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and the Poarch Band, and $10,000 to $20,000 apiece to six state senators, 36 contributions in five months in a state with no lottery and no regulated online gambling.

• VGW, the Australian owner of Chumba Casino, Global Poker and LuckyLand Casino, gave Senator Tommy Tuberville's campaign for governor of Alabama $100,000 on 31 August, on top of $30,000 on 31 March, according to disclosures filed with the Alabama Secretary of State and reported by Casino.org
• The company's Alabama giving this cycle exceeds $351,000 across 36 contributions since 1 April, including $170,000 to North Alabama PAC, run by operative Steve Ruby, whose other donors include DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians
• State senators Andrew Jones ($20,000), Garlan Gudger ($15,000), Donnie Chesteen, Will Barfoot and Greg Albritton ($10,000 each) and second-district candidate John Roberts ($10,000) also received VGW money
• Tuberville ended August with more than $9.5 million in cash against $2.5 million for Democrat Doug Jones, who has accused VGW of "trying to buy a seat at the table", according to the Alabama Reflector
• Chumba's terms of 16 September exclude 16 states, and VGW paid New York $8 million last week to settle claims over the same brands

A Sweepstakes Operator Is Now One of the Largest Donors in an Alabama Governor's Race

VGW has become one of the largest single contributors to Tommy Tuberville's campaign for governor of Alabama, according to campaign finance disclosures filed with the Alabama Secretary of State and reported by Casino.org on Monday. The company gave the campaign $100,000 on 31 August, following $30,000 on 31 March, bringing its direct support to $130,000. Tuberville, a US senator since 2021 and the former Auburn football coach, is the Republican nominee in the 3 November election.

The wider pattern is what the filings show. Since 1 April VGW has made 36 political contributions in Alabama totalling more than $351,000. The largest block, $170,000, went to North Alabama PAC, a committee managed by the political operative Steve Ruby whose donor list also includes DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the tribe that operates Alabama's three electronic bingo casinos. State Senator Andrew Jones received $20,000, Senate President Pro Tempore Garlan Gudger $15,000, and Senators Donnie Chesteen, Will Barfoot and Greg Albritton, the chamber's longest-standing lottery advocate, $10,000 each, as did John Roberts, the Republican candidate in the second district. Sweepsy has separately reported a $42,500 contribution to FORGE PAC, Gudger's leadership committee.

The money is going into one of the most restricted gambling states in the country. Alabama has no lottery, no commercial casinos and no regulated sports betting; legal gambling is limited to pari-mutuel wagering, charitable games and electronic bingo at the tribal properties in Atmore, Montgomery and Wetumpka. A 2024 bill to authorise a lottery, commercial slots and tribal Class III gaming failed by one vote in the Senate, and this year's Senate Bill 257 did not advance. Tuberville has said gambling policy is for the legislature and has expressed openness to a referendum, while stopping short of endorsing an expansion package; he received $10,000 from Big Easy Casino, a Florida racino, in February.

Sweepstakes casinos are accessible in Alabama, and VGW's brands never left the state. The company's position elsewhere has narrowed sharply: Chumba's terms updated on 16 September list California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia as unavailable, and VGW closed its LuckyLand Slots brand on 14 September. Alabama's gambling-loss recovery statute, Ala. Code § 8-1-150, has been used by plaintiffs against sweepstakes operators in dozens of class actions since the start of 2025. VGW reported revenue of $4.76 billion and net profit of $428 million for its 2025 financial year, according to its annual report.

Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee, raised more than $1.1 million in August, his strongest month, but trails on cash: $2.5 million against Tuberville's $9.5 million. He has described VGW as "trying to buy a seat at the table" and Tuberville as "a very transactional public official", the Alabama Reflector reported.

The Donor List on One PAC Says What the Industry Wants From Alabama

North Alabama PAC's contributors are the whole regulated industry in miniature: the two largest US sportsbooks, the third, the state's tribal operator and the largest sweepstakes company, all funding the same operative in a state where none of them can legally take a bet. That alignment does not survive a legalisation bill. DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM want a sports betting framework; the Poarch Band wants Class III exclusivity; VGW wants sweepstakes left alone, or a regulated online casino it can convert into. The money is buying a seat at a table that has not been laid, and the interesting question is which of them leaves it first when the legislature drafts something.

Sweepstakes Money Is Arriving as the Legal Position Is Collapsing

Sixteen excluded states, a $8 million New York settlement, Florida's lawsuit and a shuttered brand are the backdrop to VGW's Alabama spending, and they explain it. The company is defending the states it still has by funding the politicians who decide whether Alabama joins the states that have banned or are moving to ban the model, and it is doing so at a scale, $351,000 in five months, that a state legislature notices. That is legal and disclosed. It is also the kind of spending that a governor elected with it will be asked about the first time a sweepstakes bill reaches his desk, and Jones has already made it the argument.

Alabama Is the Test of Whether Sweepstakes Can Buy Time in the Last Open Markets

The sweepstakes model's survival now depends on states that have neither regulated nor banned it, and Alabama, ranked 27th by population with no legal alternative, is among the most valuable of them. VGW's bet is that a governor who defers to the legislature and a Senate leadership it has funded will not move first. The counter-bet, made by the plaintiffs' bar under § 8-1-150 and by the states that have already acted, is that the model's legal exposure outruns its political defences. Both sides now have a number on the table.

VGW has spent $351,000 to be heard in Montgomery. On 3 November Alabama will decide whether the candidate it backed is the one listening.