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.
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.
