Mass. Gaming Commission rejects LIV Golf betting as Senate probes deal with PGA Tour
BOSTON - "Our goal is to protect an American institution," said PGA Tour Chief Operating Officer Ron Price as he testified at a Senate hearing into their planned merger with the Saudi-backed LIV Tour.
But skeptics of the deal are probing how it came together, how profound Saudi influence will be, and whether the plan should put in jeopardy the PGA Tour's tax-exempt status.
For Price and other PGA brass, their proposed marriage with the Saudis is all about what's best for business. But to the pols teeing off on the deal, there's a moral issue that doesn't merit a mulligan.
"Today's hearing is about much more than the game of golf," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut). "It's about how a brutal repressive regime can buy into and indeed even take over a cherished American institution."
From 9/11 to the slaughter of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, there's little doubt the Saudi government has bloody hands. And as family members of victims in red "9/11 justice hats" looked on a 9/11 widow challenged the dealmakers to remember that grim fact.
"People that are involved in those deals should remain conscious of people like me," said Kristen Breitweiser in an interview with CBS News.
But will they? Not if Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) wins the argument. "It would be grossly unfair to expect the PGA Tour to bear the full burden of holding Saudi Arabia accountable," he said. "After all, anyone who drives a car or uses oil-based products has helped fill the coffers of the Saudi Public Investment Fund," the cash-rich funders of the LIV Tour.
Still, the fallout has hit home as the Massachusetts Gaming Commission Tuesday unanimously rejected a DraftKings request to add betting on LIV Golf to their roster. "For a lot of the reasons that are in the press in terms of the financial backing of the LIV league, to me, I'd feel uncomfortable putting this in our catalog," said Commissioner Eileen O'Brien, to the unanimous agreement of her colleagues.
There's more to come on this issue. On Tuesday, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released e-mails documenting the behind-the-scenes maneuvering as the parties tried to put the merger together, including gifting ownership of LIV teams to LIV critics Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and membership to the famous Augusta National Golf Club for the head of the Saudi fund.
But barring some kind of earth-shattering revelations that render the deal somehow untenable, look for this issue to prove an old axiom once all the posturing about moral standards is completed - money talks, and everything else walks.