Ex-Indiana Casino Exec in Illegal Donations Scandal Petitions Trump for Pardon
Posted on: December 11, 2025, 02:05h.
Last updated on: December 11, 2025, 02:15h.
- Former Centaur and Spectacle executive John Keeler seeks Trump clemency
- Keeler pleaded guilty to causing a false tax return over donations
- Indiana regulators linked the funding scheme to Spectacle projects and Rod Ratcliff
A former Indiana gaming executive who spent two months in prison for a tax offense related to concealed political contributions is angling for a pardon from President Donald Trump, The IndyStar has learned.
The name “John Scott Keeler” appears on the US Justice Department’s clemency list, with an application marked “pending,” filed earlier this year. No other person by that name appears in federal prison or court records, strongly suggesting the applicant is the same John S. Keeler who served as general counsel and vice president at Centaur Gaming, and later at Spectacle Entertainment.
Back-Door Payments
Keeler, a former state representative, pleaded guilty in 2022 to causing the filing of a false tax return in relation to a scheme to funnel $41K of Centaur Gaming’s funds to a political consultant working on then-State Senator Brent Waltz’s (R) failed 2016 congressional campaign.
Keeler then instructed the consultant to direct $25K to the Greater Indianapolis Republican Finance Committee.
The payment was falsely described as a deductible business expense on Centaur Gaming’s tax returns that year. Federal law prohibits corporations from making direct contributions to federal candidates’ campaigns.
Waltz later pleaded guilty to two felony counts of making and receiving conduit contributions and lying to the FBI. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison. Shortly after his sentencing, he told IndyStar he was collateral damage in the FBI’s campaign to “attack Donald Trump’s political infrastructure.”
Making a Spectacle
Centaur Gaming owned two racinos in Indiana — Hoosier Park Racing & Casino in Anderson, now Harrah’s Hoosier Park, and Indiana Grand Racing & Casino, now the Horseshoe Indianapolis, in Shelbyville.
After the company and its racetracks were acquired by Caesars Entertainment in 2018, Centaur CEO Rod Ratcliff formed Spectacle Entertainment, bringing several top executives from Centaur with him, including Keeler.
Spectacle purchased the Majestic Star Casino, which operated as two adjacent riverboat casinos, each with its own gaming license.
After the acquisition, Spectacle moved quickly to request that the licenses be relocated, allowing the company to develop two new land-based venues – one in Gary in partnership with Hard Rock, and one planned for Terre Haute.
Rock to a Hard Place
Less than a month after the Hard Rock project broke ground, the Indiana Gaming Commission publicly confirmed it was investigating allegations that former Centaur and current Spectacle executives were involved in directing illegal campaign contributions, and it delayed casino approvals.
Keeler and Ratcliff were ultimately removed from the company, and a subsequent restructuring made Spectacle a minority shareholder in what became Hard Rock Northern Indiana.
The state gaming commission said it believed Spectacle chairman Rod Ratcliff was involved in the payments scheme, citing internal emails and his calendar showing a meeting with the political consultant who helped channel the funds.
In November 2023, Republican state representative Sean Ebhart pleaded guilty to a federal honest services fraud conspiracy charge after he admitted accepting money and the promise of a future job from Spectacle that promised to pay $350K per annum.
In return, he promoted and voted for the 2019 bill that authorized the operator to relocate the two gaming licenses.
Ratcliff, a prominent Republican fundraiser and early Trump supporter, was never charged with any crime, but his political proximity to a president who has pardoned supporters and donors in the past just might impact Keeler’s chances of a pardon.
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