N.Y. General Municipal Law § 190-a: Raffles; license not required

§ 190-a. Raffles; license not required. 1. Notwithstanding the

licensing requirements set forth in this article and their filing

requirements set forth in subdivision four of section one hundred ninety

of this article, an authorized organization may conduct a raffle without

complying with such licensing requirements or such filing requirements,

provided, that such organization shall derive net proceeds from raffles

in an amount less than five thousand dollars during the conduct of one

raffle and shall derive net proceeds from raffles in an amount less than

thirty thousand dollars during one calendar year.

2. (a) For the purposes of this section, "authorized organization"

shall mean and include any bona fide religious or charitable

organization or bona fide educational, fraternal or service organization

or bona fide organization of veterans, volunteer firefighters or

volunteer ambulance workers that by its charter, certificate of

incorporation, constitution, or act of the legislature, has among its

dominant purposes one or more of the lawful purposes as defined in this

article, provided that each shall operate without profit to its members

and provided that each such organization has engaged in serving one or

more of the lawful purposes as defined in this article for a period of

one year immediately prior to being granted the filing requirement

exemption contained in subdivision one of this section.

(b) No organization shall be deemed an authorized organization that is

formed primarily for the purpose of conducting games of chance and that

does not devote at least seventy-five percent of its activities to other

than conducting games of chance. No political party shall be deemed an

authorized organization.

3. No person under the age of eighteen shall be permitted to play,

operate or assist in any raffle conducted pursuant to this section.

4. No raffle shall be conducted pursuant to this section except within

a municipality in which the authorized organization is domiciled that

has passed a local law, ordinance or resolution in accordance with

sections one hundred eighty-seven and one hundred eighty-eight of this

article approving the conduct of games of chance, and in municipalities

which have passed a local law, ordinance or resolution in accordance

with sections one hundred eighty-seven and one hundred eighty-eight of

this article approving the conduct of games of chance that are located

within the county or contiguous to the county in which the organization

is domiciled.