Ken Paxton has been attorney general of Texas since 2015. One of the quieter powers of that job is writing attorney general opinions: official answers to legal questions that shape how the state reads and enforces its own laws.
A Washington Post review published October 11 found that the staff or political arms of five organizations with a stake in matters his office weighed in on gave money to Paxton's campaigns. Some gave tens of thousands of dollars. Some gave right before. Some gave right after.
Paxton's campaign did not respond to the Post's questions. The companies and organizations involved told the Post the payments weren't made to influence him.
Here's what the Post found.
The slot-style game makers: more than $100,000
Texas bans most gambling. But a company called Pace-O-Matic makes a game that looks like a slot machine, and a state court ruled in 2025 that it was a game of skill, not chance — which meant the machines could keep operating.
This spring, Paxton's office was reviewing what counts as gambling, at the request of a state senator who opposes it.
While that review was underway, Paxton's campaign and fundraising committees took in more than $100,000 from executives at Pace-O-Matic and Republic Amusements, the company that runs its machines. According to the Post, none of those executives had ever given to any of Paxton's campaigns for attorney general.
In June, Paxton's office issued its opinion. It set a strict rule — any game with any chance in it counts as gambling — but it did not say whether Pace-O-Matic's machines count, and it didn't touch the court ruling that let them operate. Texas's association of county and district attorneys warned that the ambiguity could "cause a quandry [sic] for law enforcement and prosecutors."
Pace-O-Matic praised the opinion. It told the Post the donations were made by employees "in their personal capacity" and weren't tied to it.
The rock-crushing plant: $10,000, two months later
In 2016, the city of Fort Worth rejected a concrete and rock-crushing plant planned by a company belonging to Wallace Hall, a Paxton donor who had given him more than $50,000 since 2014.
In 2018, Paxton's office wrote an opinion saying a court would "likely conclude" that the state's environmental agency could ignore the city's opposition. Hall used the opinion to lobby for a permit.
Two months after the opinion, Hall gave Paxton another $10,000. The permit for the rock-crushing operation was never granted. Hall declined to comment.
The anesthesiologists: $24,000, one month later
In 2019, Paxton's office issued an opinion saying nurses can't give anesthesia unless a doctor hands them that task. It lined up with what the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists wanted — a priority for them in a long fight over who gets to give anesthesia. Nurse-anesthetist groups argue that requiring a doctor's sign-off makes anesthesia more expensive.
One month after the opinion, PACs tied to both doctors' groups, plus the anesthesiologists' then-president, gave Paxton a combined $24,000, all reported the same day.
The anesthesiologists' group told the Post it had backed Paxton for years before and after. The group gave him at least $120,000 from 2014 to 2022.
"Basically a free-for-all"
None of this is illegal. In Texas, an attorney general can take money from people whose business is in front of his office. That is exactly the problem.
"Ideally you would avoid obvious conflicts of interest," Daniel Weiner of the Brennan Center told the Post. "But that's very hard to do in the system we have right now, which is basically a free-for-all."
Paxton didn't avoid them. He collected them.
A pattern, not an accident
The Post's list fits a record Texans already know:
- Nate Paul. Paxton was impeached by his own party's state House in 2023 on charges that he took bribes and abused his office to help this real-estate developer and major donor. His own top staff reported him to the FBI. The state Senate acquitted him, and no federal charges were filed.
- Texas Tech. One day after a Texas Tech regent gave a committee backing Paxton's Senate run a six-figure check, Paxton's office threatened to sue the Big 12 on the school's behalf.
- Prediction markets. Kalshi, a big betting-market company, gave $5,000 to a pro-Paxton super PAC in May 2025, and its CEO gave Paxton's campaign $7,000 the next month. Paxton has declined to join bipartisan efforts by other attorneys general to let states regulate those markets, the Post noted, citing Politico.
We've also reported on a $250,000 super PAC check from a donor who doesn't exist — it came from the son of a family friend, whose father's pardon Paxton had backed.
Paxton now wants to take that approach to the U.S. Senate, where the people writing checks will have business before Congress.
What the records show
The Washington Post found five organizations with a stake in Ken Paxton's legal opinions whose staff or political arms gave him money. Executives of a slot-style game maker gave more than $100,000 while his office reviewed whether their machines were gambling — none had given to his attorney general campaigns before. A donor gave $10,000 two months after an opinion that helped his rock-crushing plant, and doctors' groups gave $24,000 a month after an opinion they wanted.
