During its regularly-scheduled meeting on Wednesday, April 13, the Texas Racing Commission voted not to pay the $371,377 fee assessed to the state by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, reports Spectrum News 1.
HISA is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2022; if state regulatory agencies vote not to collect and remit HISA-assessed costs, that duty will fall to the individual racetracks.
Commission chair Robert Pate explained that Texas state law does not allow the commission to pay a federal agency to do its job, and in fact, that doing so could force the commission to disallow wagering on those races.
“An unintended consequence of HISA—at least in Texas—may be the elimination of all parimutuel wagering and simulcast wager for HISA-covered horses and covered horse racing under the Texas Racing Act,” Pate said. “Any race or meet subject to HISA regulation—without state staffing to adequately implement state law—will not be a race or meet that meets Texas racing statute, and the Commission cannot allow parimutuel wager or simulcast wagering in those circumstances.”
Texas racing officials expressed these concerns to HISA representatives in December of 2021, along with other state racing officials. According to vice chair Connie McNabb, HISA told the states their concerns were moot because HISA has the authority of the Federal Trade Commission.
The Texas Commission has also joined a legal case debating the constitutionality of HISA.
Read more at Spectrum News 1.
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