State campaign finance reports revealed hundreds of thousands of dollars were donated by Nevada's casino industry to incumbent Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak and his Republican challenger, Joe Lombardo.
Sisolak took the most from casinos and their executives, about $943k since 2021, but Lombardo took in about $730k since last year.
Nevada political consultant Billy Vassiliadis commented: "Most times, the gaming industry tends to be pro-incumbent, especially if the experience has been generally good in the prior term."
Phil Ruffin, owner of Treasure Island and Circus Circus, personally donated $10k to both Sisolak and Lombardo. Including the properties that he owns, Ruffin has given more to Sisolak, equalling $30k since last year.
Per Nevada law, individual and organization donations to candidates are limited to $5,000 per election. In total, The most a person or corporation could donate is $10k or $5,000 each for the primary and general election campaigns. If they choose to they can donate to political action committees (PACs) which have no limit.
The Venetian is Sisolak's biggest backer in the casino industry, donating $40k to his campaign and an additional $210k to his affiliated PAC, Home Means Nevada.
Lombardo received his largest donation from Golden Entertainment, the group that operates the Strat as well as several rural casinos and the PT’s Pub chain.
Golden donated $20k to Lombardo’s campaign and $70k to his PAC, Stronger Nevada. The next largest gaming group to donate to Lombardo is Boyd Gaming, which gave $30k to his campaign but gave $40k to Sisolak as well.
