AUSTIN, TX—FEBRUARY 24, 2015—According to an article by Jay Root, published today on The Texas Truibune website texastribune.org, Locke Lord, a law firm that lobbies the Texas Legislature on behalf of Landry’s Inc. — owner of the Golden Nugget casino chain — helped draft some of the wording in the letter sent by the Senate Republican Caucus to the Texas Horse Racing Commission last summer blasting a proposal to allow historcial racing, a new form of electronic gambling.

Tilman Fertitta, the owner and CEO of Landry's and a mega political contributor, recently celebrated the opening of a new Golden Nugget in Louisiana.

Texas State Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston), then the chair of the caucus, told The Texas Tribune this week that she asked Locke Lord to help with “legal questions” and “historical information” in the letter. The caucus expressed its opposition to the state racing commission’s proposal — later adopted — to allow “historical racing” devices, which some opponents compare to slot machines.

“They had some input, but they were not involved with the policymaking,” Huffman said. “There was some basic information provided and I took it from there.”

Asked specifically if the firm helped with the wording of the letter, the senator said, "Yeah, somewhat. I think that's fair to say."

According to the article, Locke Lord lobbyist Robert Miller would not say whether he was involved in helping to draft the letter.

“I’ll just defer to Sen. Huffman on that,” Miller said.

Texas Thoroughbred Association past president David Stephens expressed outrage at Locke Lord’s involvement in the letter-writing process and said it’s “evidence that out-of-state casinos are behind the effort to put the horse industry in Texas out of business.”

“The fact that the lobby firm that represents a major casino owner with deep pockets played a role in drafting the letter taints the entire process, and the senators who signed the letter should be ashamed,” Stephens said. He added the senators should be making decisions based on “facts, not propaganda prepared by out-of-state special interests.”

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to hear from the Texas Racing Commission on Wednesday as part of the panel’s examination of the budgets of various state agencies.

Last month a proposed Senate budget, headed by Sen. Jane Nelson(R-Flower Mound), zeroed out funding for the racing commission, highlighting dissatisfaction and payback for the commission's move last August to allow instant racing in the State. Ironically, Nelson's district sits just 65 miles South of the "World's Largest Casino" — WinStar World Casino & Resort — in Thackerville, Oklahoma.

With historical racing, gamblers put their money into machines and bet on electronic simulations of past horse races with most of the identifying information taken off.

The Idaho Legislature approved the concept two years ago but is now contemplating new legislation to repeal it following pressure from Indian Tribe lobbyist in the state.

According to the Tribune article, Huffman said the members of the GOP caucus who signed the letter did not take a position on the issue of historical racing specifically, but agreed that the Racing Commission had overstepped its bounds by trying to “circumvent” the Legislature’s authority to make gambling policy.

“We felt it was inappropriate for the commission to make these decisions and were acting outside the scope of their authority,” Huffman said. “It really didn’t go to solving the issue or making a policy determination about how legislation should proceed on the issue.”