Bill Text: NY A03611 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Specifies who can operate a handicapping tournament; requires handicapping tournament operators to distribute no less than eighty percent of entry fees as prizes to the winners of a handicapping tournament; requires that five percent of the portion of the gross revenue collected by an operator on handicapping tournament entry fees from New York participants that is not distributed as prizes to the winners of a tournament be distributed quarterly by such operator to the horsemen's organization for welfare and medical plans for regularly employed backstretch employees.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-01-03 - referred to racing and wagering [A03611 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A03611-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         3611--A

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 3, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. PRETLOW, BRAUNSTEIN -- read once and referred to
          the Committee on Racing and Wagering  --  committee  discharged,  bill
          amended,  ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
          tee

        AN ACT to amend the racing, pari-mutuel wagering and  breeding  law,  in
          relation to handicapping tournaments

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Section 906 of the racing, pari-mutuel wagering and  breed-
     2  ing  law,  as  added by chapter 2 of the laws of 1995, and as renumbered
     3  and subdivision 1 as amended by chapter 18 of  the  laws  of  2008,  and
     4  paragraph  (b) of subdivision 2 as amended by chapter 243 of the laws of
     5  2020, is amended to read as follows:
     6    §  906.  Handicapping  tournaments.  1.  Notwithstanding   any   other
     7  provision  of  law, a thoroughbred racing corporation, including a fran-
     8  chise corporation,  a  harness  racing  corporation  or  association,  a
     9  regional  off-track  betting  corporation or a combination thereof, or a
    10  party that contracts with any of the foregoing, may operate a  handicap-
    11  ping tournament at which the participants may be charged an entry fee if
    12  the  tournament  is  conducted in accordance with the provisions of this
    13  section.
    14    2. (a) The operator of a handicapping tournament shall  distribute  no
    15  less  than  eighty  percent  of  all  of the entry fees as prizes to the
    16  winners of the tournament. Nothing herein  shall  preclude  an  operator
    17  from providing additional prizes or promotions.
    18    (b)  The  commission shall approve the rules and the payment of prizes
    19  of a handicapping tournament. No operator of a  handicapping  tournament
    20  may  accept  an  entry  fee  for  a  tournament until the commission has
    21  approved the rules and the payment of prizes of a  handicapping  tourna-
    22  ment.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD04616-03-3
        A. 3611--A                          2

     1    (c)  The  horse  races which are the subject of the tournament must be
     2  races on which the operator of the tournament is authorized  to  conduct
     3  wagering.  [At least fifty percent of the races which are the subject of
     4  the tournament must be races run in New York state.]
     5    3.   A   handicapping  tournament  operated  in  accordance  with  the
     6  provisions of this section shall be considered a contest  of  skill  and
     7  shall not be considered gambling.
     8    4.  Five  percent  of the portion of the gross revenue collected by an
     9  operator on handicapping tournament entry fees  from  New  York  partic-
    10  ipants  that is not distributed as prizes to the winners of a tournament
    11  pursuant to subdivision two of this section shall be  distributed  quar-
    12  terly  by  such operator to the horsemen's organization for the adminis-
    13  trative purposes of said organization and for such welfare  and  medical
    14  plans  for  regularly employed backstretch employees pursuant to section
    15  three hundred eighteen of this chapter.
    16    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.