Hawley proposes bill to allow credit cards for charitable gaming
Press Release, State Assemblyman Steve Hawley
In his ongoing fight to update the state’s charitable gaming laws which have prohibited events such as the Stafford Fire Department’s annual car raffle, Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R-Batavia) has introduced legislation to allow charitable organizations to accept credits cards as a form of payment for internet sales of games of chance.
Hawley was successful in working with Gov. Cuomo to update several facets of the state’s gaming laws in this year’s budget, including expanding the definition of an “authorized organization” to include volunteer ambulance workers and organizations that have been in existence for one year, allowing television and internet advertising of raffles and allowing personal checks to be acceptable payments for games of chance.
“While many of the state’s archaic gaming laws were updated in this year’s budget, there is still much more work to be done to protect the livelihood of our thousands of charitable organizations, churches, fire departments and non-profits across the state,” Hawley said. “This bill would allow these groups to accept credit cards as a form of payment for raffles, resulting in higher revenues raised for these great organizations and the ability for them to sell tickets outside of the region in which the raffle is taking place. I am hopeful that we can get this passed by the end of session and I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Assembly to make that a reality moving forward.”
