Lila Smith, the TRC's director of pari-mutuel betting, said she would notify the tracks immediately as soon as the funding problem was solved. Without funding, the commission can't regulate the horse tracks, so the TRC ordered racing and simulcasting around the state shut down at midnight Monday. Monday night, the TRC and Texas' Legislative Budget Board were unable to reach a compromise in order to continue funding the TRC. After track owners told the commission that they were willing to deal with the consequences of continuing to fight for historical racing, the commission voted to make no changes to its rules. In August, the TRC met to discuss scrubbing the rules that allow historical racing from its books.
Several Texas horse tracks have appealed that ruling. Historical racing did represent an expansion of gambling, the court said, something that can only be approved by the Legislature. In November 2014 a state district court ruled that the commission had overstepped its authority. It's at least understandable then that Texas legislators who oppose the expansion of gambling in the state were upset when the Texas Racing Commission approved the machines. The terminals give people at tracks a way to make a bet that isn't based on local live action or a simulcast. The horses in the historic races have been scrubbed of all identifying information and potential handicapping information is minimal. They've got reels, lights and buttons just like the genuine article. Tracks want so-called historical racing terminals because they're almost identical, at least to the undiscerning eye, to slot machines. The fight, the one that's at least temporarily shut down all horse betting in the state of Texas, is over the ability of Texas horse track bettors to wager on the outcome of races that have already happened.
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