Ronald Perelman, the chairman and largest shareholder of Scientific Games – and a major US political donor – is backing senator Lindsey Graham’s 2016 presidential campaign, reports the New York Times.
Graham (pictured), a Republican who announced his candidacy for president last week, was the man behind a March 2014 federal bill to ban online gambling across all states. The legislation expired as Congress closed down in December but Graham has since confirmed his intention to reintroduce the bill.
Last Thursday, the senator published his long-shot presidential campaign's national finance committee. Perelman’s name was on the list along with another name familiar to the US i-gaming battlefield – Adelson, in the form of Lenny Adelson, younger brother of Las Vegas Sands magnate and high-profile online gambling opponent Sheldon Adelson.
So does Graham count among his backers both Perelman, chairman of the board at Scientific Games, itself currently expanding into online real-money gambling, and Sheldon Adelson himself, who has made it his mission to ban i-gaming stateside?
The Washington Post thinks so. In March, Graham’s early White House overtures emerged at a fundraising lunch co-chaired by 40 major Republican donors, including Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam.
Perelman has a broad range of business interests, including roles as chairman and CEO of MacAndrews & Forbes and chairman of cosmetics giant Revlon, but his alignment with a presidential candidate publicly opposed to online gaming in the US is sure to raise eyebrows at Scientific Games.
