The expense reports filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission read like the budget of a cutting-edge business start-up venture.

Here’s the kicker about all that money: It came from casinos. Pinnacle Entertainment (which owns Lumiere Place and the President Casino in St. Louis), Ameristar Casinos and the Missouri Gaming Association are the only listed donors in about a year’s worth of campaign reports.

A measure “in support of schools” didn’t receive a dime from schools.

The Yes on A Coalition also didn’t claim a single public school district as a supporter. It boasts hundreds of teachers as supporters, but given that a Carl Junction teacher protested the use of his name as a supporter, that raises skepticism about the other teachers and the methods of how their support was obtained.

The coalition didn’t get much support from newspaper endorsements, either. None of Missouri’s major dailies supported it, and the Globe and Springfield News-Leader opposed it.

But the advertising blitz worked. The barrage of ads featuring education professionals talking about Missouri children and money for schools led a majority of voters to pass the proposition.

The reason for a $15 million investment from casinos is obvious. Globe editorial board members noted that, according to the coalition’s own campaign materials, the passage of the proposition is likely to net casinos an additional $422 million per year.

If that doesn’t define the old maxim of spending money to make money, I don’t know what does.

But the claim of more money for schools remains to be seen — especially since the Missouri Legislature has ultimate authority on spreading money to schools, not the proposition.