JEFFERSON CITY — Lawyers working for Attorney General Andrew Bailey withdrew last week from a lawsuit lodged against Missouri by a politically connected company that has flooded the state with unregulated slot machines.
A photo of children using unregulated slot machines in a lawsuit against them (from court filings).
The action follows tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to a political action committee supporting Bailey from committees that have received contributions from the plaintiffs in the case.
The committees are also tied to Steve Tilley, a lobbyist for the two plaintiffs in the case, Torch Electronics and Warrenton Oil.
Warrenton Oil in December contributed $1,000 directly to Bailey’s PAC, called Liberty and Justice.
Torch Electronics, a Wildwood firm, and Warrenton Oil, which offers Torch games at its gas stations, in 2021 asked a Cole County judge to issue an order stopping the Missouri Highway Patrol from seizing machines as part of a crackdown on illegal gambling. The case is pending.
The contributions to Bailey raised questions about whether Bailey’s attorneys withdrew from the case because of a conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest.
“Our office followed our longstanding practice of retaining conflict counsel to avoid any appearance of impropriety,” Madeline Sieren, spokeswoman for Bailey, said in a statement to the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday.
The Post-Dispatch reported in 2021 that a spokesman for then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican, said Schmitt’s U.S. Senate campaign returned a contribution from the owner of Torch Electronics after conflict of interest concerns were raised.
Sieren did not respond to a question asking why Bailey didn’t return the money and continue work on the case.
Court records show assistant attorneys general David McCain and Jason Lewis withdrew from the case on Wednesday.
In their place, private attorney Scott Pool, of Gibbs Pool and Turner PC, filed an entry of appearance as the Department of Public Safety’s new counsel.
It was initially unclear how much money taxpayers would pay the private law firm because of the decision to remove state attorneys from the case.
“We’re paying them the same contract rate we pay all outside counsel,” Sieren said.
Records show five political action committees associated with Tilley gave a total of $25,000 to Bailey’s PAC in December.
The committees — the MO Majority PAC, the Missouri Senior PAC, the Missouri C PAC, the Missouri AG PAC, and the Missouri Growth PAC — all received $40,000 in contributions from Torch in May.
Warrenton Oil, meanwhile, sent $75,000 to the five PACs in question last year.
The attorney general’s campaign committee accepted $2,825 from all five committees in question on March 27, the maximum allowed to a campaign committee under state law, ethics commission records show.
One of his potential rivals in the attorney general’s race criticized Bailey for not returning the money and hiring private lawyers instead.
“Andrew Bailey wants to keep his campaign contributions from illegal gambling companies,” said Elad Gross, a Democrat running for attorney general, said on Twitter. “So now, instead of enforcing the law, he’s making the state spend more taxpayer money to hire a private attorney to do his job!”
The donations come as Bailey gears up for what is expected to be an expensive GOP primary between the attorney general, appointed to the post by Gov. Mike Parson, and Will Scharf, a former federal prosecutor from Clayton who has attracted support from high-profile Republican donors.
While Bailey has used the state Merchandising Practices Act to limit medical care for transgender people, he has taken no similar action to protect consumers from unregulated slot machines that don’t require a minimum payout. (State-sanctioned slots must pay out 80%.)
A second state law gives the attorney general the ability to file lawsuits against “gambling houses” to enjoin illegal gambling activity.
Efforts to crack down on the unregulated machines have failed in the Legislature for years amid lobbying by Torch.
Past legislation would’ve clearly classified unregulated games as illegal, erasing any ambiguity from current law.
After a Platte County judge ruled another company had violated
- current state law on illegal gambling, one state senator last year expressed disappointment that more prosecutors hadn’t taken action against unregulated slots.
“It’s always frustrating when it takes a second law to deem something that’s illegal … to try to address it because of the lack of action of the prosecutors,” said then-Sen. Dan Hegeman, R-Cosby.
Moments after being sworn in as the state’s 44th attorney general in January, Bailey signaled he was fine with the status quo.
“That is an issue that’s up to local law enforcement investigators and local prosecutors,” Bailey said.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022, announces Andrew Bailey as the next attorney general for the state.
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