STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6933
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 18, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. VANEL -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Racing and Wagering
AN ACT to amend the racing, pari-mutuel wagering and breeding law, in
relation to knowingly encouraging a gambling addiction
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The racing, pari-mutuel wagering and breeding law is
2 amended by adding a new section 1363-a to read as follows:
3 § 1363-a. Knowingly encouraging a gambling addiction. 1. An entity
4 licensed under this article shall be guilty of knowingly encouraging a
5 gambling addiction where such entity, an employee, agent or another at
6 the entity's direction willfully engages human-to-human contact with a
7 person and through such contact knows or should have known that such
8 contact is inducing, exacerbating, or sustaining compulsive gambling
9 behavior or gambling disorder in another beyond reasonable and sustaina-
10 ble levels for that person. In determining whether an entity has know-
11 ingly encouraged a gambling addiction, a court shall consider:
12 (a) The income reported by the person to the entity;
13 (b) The total amount wagered;
14 (c) The level and type of contact between the entity and the person,
15 compared to other users of the entity's service;
16 (d) Communications between the person and the entity, and whether
17 those communications indicate the person explicitly indicated to the
18 entity that they suffer or may suffer from a gambling addiction;
19 (e) Communications between the person and the entity, and whether
20 those communications indicate the person implicitly indicated to the
21 entity that they suffer or may suffer from a gambling addiction;
22 (f) Whether the person has previously self-excluded themselves from
23 wagering;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10854-01-5
A. 6933 2
1 (g) Whether the person indicated to the entity that the money used to
2 gamble was acquired through sources that would indicate a gambling
3 addiction, such as savings accounts, loans, and other similar sources;
4 (h) Whether the entity internally flagged that the person had a gambl-
5 ing addiction and continued to provide gambling services to the person;
6 (i) Whether the entity failed to consider or input the relevant infor-
7 mation that would have flagged such person as a gambling addict;
8 (j) Whether the entity, after making a determination that the person
9 is or may suffer from a gambling addiction, failed to ban such person
10 from wagering on such entity's application; and
11 (k) The overall number of persons who developed a gambling addiction
12 after engaging in human-to-human contact with the entity, its employees,
13 agents or others at the direction of the entity.
14 2. An entity shall not be guilty of knowingly encouraging a gambling
15 addiction merely through the lawful passive or targeted offering or
16 communication to another of an entity's services through non-human-to-
17 human contact.
18 3. Where the commission determines that a violation of the provisions
19 of this section has occurred, the commission shall impose a civil penal-
20 ty not exceeding two times such amounts wagered by the person who is the
21 subject of the violation, provided however that where the commission
22 determines that the entity has engaged in a persistent course of conduct
23 in violation of this section, such amount shall increase to three times
24 such amounts wagered by the person who is the subject of the violation.
25 4. Upon a finding by the commission that an entity engaged in conduct
26 violative of this section against a person, such person aggrieved by a
27 violation of this section shall be entitled to maintain an action in the
28 supreme court of the county in which the person resides for the enforce-
29 ment of their rights under this section. Such person shall be entitled
30 to the full amount wagered, damages resulting as a consequence of the
31 addiction, and court and attorney's fees.
32 5. Any provision in a contract between a person and an entity which
33 eliminates or augments a person's rights with respect to the provisions
34 of this section shall be void.
35 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
36 have become a law.
