Texas Racing Commission Handed Clue-By-4

Hey remember how the state legislature told they Texas Racing Commission that they didn’t have the authority to approve “historical racing” machines (i.e., gambling machines prohibited by law)? And remember how the Racing Commission said “Screw you, we’re doing it anyway because we’re total lapdogs for the gambling lobby?” (I may be paraphrasing just a wee tad here…)

Well a solution appears to be at hand:

There’s been another shakeup of top leadership at an embattled state agency as the push to derail historical racing — a hotly contested new way to gamble at tracks statewide — continues in Austin.

Gov. Greg Abbott has named Rolando Pablos of El Paso to lead the Texas Racing Commission, replacing local orthopedic surgeon Robert Schmidt, who has guided the agency since 2011.

Schmidt, who will continue to serve on the commission, resigned as chair after declining Abbott’s request to place the issue of repealing historical racing, the replaying of past races on slot machine-like devices, on next week’s agenda.

The governor accepted that resignation; a proposal to repeal historical racing rules is now on the commission’s Dec. 15 agenda.

You would think it wouldn’t be that hard to reign in a rogue commission that refuses to obey the law, but I guess gambling lobby money talks pretty loudly…

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