Las Vegas casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson upped his ante in former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s unregulated issues-advocacy group in August, with a $750,000 donation that helped propel the organization to the No. 2 fundraising spot among so-called 527 political groups this election season.

Amid new signs that its signature “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” campaign was reaping success on Capitol Hill, American Solutions for Winning the Future reported a total of $1.9 million in contributions for August, its second-best fundraising month.

(Its best was a $2.1 million showing in June, when the group rolled out its campaign to end the 27-year-old U.S. moratorium on offshore drilling, and Republican presidential candidate John McCain took up the cause.)