A veteran GOP operative spearheading efforts to elect Republicans to the statehouse in Missouri is simultaneously working for a gaming-machine company that regulators say is distributing illegal gambling devices in the state.
The state GOP tapped Gregg Keller in January to lead the Missouri Victory Committee, an arm of the party that it says “will work to ensure Republican victories at every level of Missouri government in 2020.” That role puts Keller in the employ of a state party whose platform calls for “strict enforcement of current laws on gambling” and “prohibiting the further expansion of gambling within Missouri beyond that already authorized.”
At the same time, though, Keller is serving as a spokesman for Torch Electronics, a videogaming device company that has placed terminals in bars and truck stops across Missouri. In July, the state’s Gaming Commission ruled that the types of machines distributed by Torch are considered gambling devices under state law, meaning their presence in businesses without gaming licenses is illegal.
His dual roles appear to put Keller in a position of advocating for a company with a major financial stake in state law and its administration even as he works to elect and re-elect the very officials who could make or break his client’s business in the state.
Keller previously served as executive director of two prominent conservative advocacy groups, the American Conservative Union and the Faith & Freedom Coalition. He was also a senior aide on the Romney and McCain presidential campaigns. In addition to the Missouri Victory Committee, his firm, the Atlas Strategy Group, has received consulting fees this year from Fair Missouri, a state GOP-backed political group seeking to roll back parts of a successful ballot measure last year that overhauled the legislative redistricting process.
Keller rejected any suggestion of a conflict between his dual roles for Torch and the Missouri GOP. “These kinds of attacks are designed to intimidate Republicans and conservative business people from taking part in the political process and I won’t be cowed by them,” he wrote in an email. “As a political operative my job is to elect Republicans; I’ll put my record up against anyone’s and will continue as I have.”
Torch Electronics’ devices allow users to wager money on a number of digital games. Winners can cash out through a bartender or clerk or other designated employee at the business in question. Torch says there’s a key difference between its product and, say, a slot machine: It allows its users to hit a button and see whether they’re about to win money or not. Therefore, they say, it’s not a game of chance.
The Missouri Gaming Commission rejected that explanation in a July letter to a VFW post that had set up similar devices distributed by a Torch competitor. “In our opinion, the fact that the player can choose to reveal a prize prior to the first game play, and the nominal existence of some element of skill in the game, does not remove the devices from the prohibition” under state law, the commission wrote, as first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Setting up and operating these devices at your VFW post would be illegal.”
A pair of Missouri Republican legislators introduced legislation this year to ease state restrictions on Torch-like devices. Since then, Torch has poured money into Missouri political groups that support Republican candidates for the statehouse, including a five-figure contribution to Gov. Mike Parson’s PAC. The governor oversees state law enforcement and administrative agencies such as the gaming commission.
Last year, Torch hired former Republican statehouse speaker Steve Tilley, a Parson confidant, to lobby Jefferson City on the company’s behalf. The company’s first donation to the governor’s PAC came two weeks later. Since then, Torch has donated thousands of dollars to political groups linked to Tilley and his family.
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