Troy King, a candidate for Alabama attorney general who says he will not accept campaign contributions from gambling interests, has taken about $90,000 from five South Carolina companies and individuals with links to gaming, records show.

Through June 1, King had raised a total of $1,448,112, including the gaming money for his campaign. King said he accepted the contributions because the gaming donors are not exclusively interested in gaming.

"We have not accepted money from gaming interests," King said. "You know, if somebody has an interest in gaming and they own a pawn shop or they own a hotel, we will not take money from a gaming interest, but we do take money from hotels."

One of those South Carolina donors, Keith Gray, is a friend, King said.

Gray is also involved in the gambling business, and is acting CFO of Frontier Software Systems LLC, which makes software for gaming machines, according to a court document.

In 2014, Frontier was the focus of federal investigations in which two employees pleaded guilty to money laundering and operating an illegal gambling company out of South Carolina. Gray was not charged, and it is unclear as to whether he worked for Frontier at the time.

Frontier forfeited $20 million, which officials at the time told reporters was the biggest forfeiture ever in South Carolina.

One of Gray's gambling ventures has been the subject of a prosecution in Alabama. In 2017, state authorities seized gaming machines in Jefferson County. Prosecutors named one of Gray's companies as a party in that case.

King's election opponent, Attorney General Steve Marshall, helped prosecute that case through his office.

King said his campaign took money from a company that invests in small businesses but did not comment on Gray's past with gambling groups and companies.

Gray is currently the CFO of KG Consulting in Anderson, South Carolina, and serves as the Chief Financial Officer for Foothills Capital, according to King. According to King's campaign disclosures, the contributions are in Gray's name, as well as family members and business associates with different addresses. Efforts to reach Gray prior to publication of the story were unsuccessful.

The campaign received $15,000 from Phyllis Gray, Keith Gray's wife. Asked about the donation, Phyllis Gray said she had never heard of Troy King and did not care about the Alabama election.

Two donations, totaling $12,750, came from companies called Open Ocean Investments and Sycamore Investments. Those companies, both with disconnected phone numbers, share a post office box in Piedmont, South Carolina.

Greenville County, S.C, records show that Bobby Mosley, one of the two Frontier employees who pleaded guilty to running an illegal gambling business, uses the same post office box for at least three companies.

According to court records, Mosley has connections to more than a dozen gambling technology companies, including Blue Streak Bids, which Gray once served CFO. In 2017, Alabama authorities seized gambling machines in Jefferson County running on Blue Streak Bids software.

In that case, the court ruled that the machines were illegal machines under Alabama law.

Also as part of that case, the state sent Blue Streak Bids a cease and desist letter ordering the company to stop offering illegal gambling through the website, Redibids.com.

King's other South Carolina contributors declined to comment or could not be reached.

A representative for KG Consulting, one of Gray's current businesses, refused to comment on the donation of $18,750 to King's campaign.

King's alleged affiliation with gambling companies spans years. In 2013, he formed the company Innovate! Technologies Group LLC, which produced and patented a game meant to emulate craps.

Last month, King initially denied that the company was his, and later argued that he had set up the company for someone else he wouldn't name.

Along with the donations from Gray, King has received $10,000 from Brian Huntley, co-director of H3 Gaming Inc. in Texas. King has stuck to his claim that he does not take gambling money and is not for the state's gambling influences.

"We have worked very hard to avoid taking gaming money," King said.