N.Y. General Municipal Law § 185: Short title; purpose of article

§ 185. Short title; purpose of article. This article shall be known

and may be cited as the games of chance licensing law. The legislature

hereby declares that the raising of funds for the promotion of bona fide

charitable, educational, scientific, health, religious and patriotic

causes and undertakings, where the beneficiaries are undetermined, is in

the public interest. It hereby finds that, as conducted prior to the

enactment of this article, games of chance were the subject of

exploitation by professional gamblers, promoters, and commercial

interests. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the legislature

that all phases of the supervision, licensing and regulation of games of

chance and of the conduct of games of chance, should be closely

controlled and that the laws and regulations pertaining thereto should

be strictly construed and rigidly enforced; that the conduct of the game

and all attendant activities should be so regulated and adequate

controls so instituted as to discourage commercialization of gambling in

all its forms, including the rental of commercial premises for games of

chance, and to ensure a maximum availability of the net proceeds of

games of chance exclusively for application to the worthy causes and

undertakings specified herein; that the only justification for this

article is to foster and support such worthy causes and undertakings,

and that the mandate of section nine of article one of the state

constitution, as amended, should be carried out by rigid regulations to

prevent commercialized gambling, prevent participation by criminal and

other undesirable elements and prevent the diversion of funds from the

purposes herein authorized.