Topeka ? The executive director of the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission has stepped down.

Gov. Mark Parkinson announced Friday that Stephen Martino was leaving the job. Parkinson appointed Patrick Martin, the commission’s chief counsel, as the commission’s interim executive director.

The commission regulates state-owned casinos and dog and horse tracks where betting occurs.

Martino had served as executive director since 2005. His wife, Beth, had been Parkinson’s communications director but left that job in February to take a job with the federal Food and Drug Administration in the Washington D.C. area.