L.L. 1997/057

Enactment date: 7/14/1997

Int. No. 897-A

By Council Members Berman, O'Donovan, Eisland, Spigner, Pinkett, Marshall, Wooten and Stabile (by the request of the Mayor); also Council Members DeMarco, McCaffrey, Povman, Robles and Williams

A Local Law To amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the regulation of shipboard gambling

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Legislative findings. The council hereby finds that city regulation of gambling "cruises to nowhere" that operate from locations within New York city is necessary to ensure public confidence and trust in such activities and to safeguard the security of the public who participate in them. Gambling activities are particularly susceptible to criminal activity and have historical associations with organized crime control. Like the legislatures in other jurisdictions, such as New Jersey and Nevada, which have acted to protect consumers from fraudulent practices and to prevent gambling from providing new opportunities for organized crime, the council finds that public confidence and trust can only be achieved and sustained by a regulatory system that ensures that such gambling operations will not be controlled or influenced by persons with criminal records and associations or associations with organized crime. The council therefore finds that it is necessary to require that businesses that operate gambling "cruises to nowhere" using vessels embarking from New York city, and their employees and suppliers, be licensed by the city and that the standards for the issuance of such licenses allow for the denial of licenses to entities and individuals unable to demonstrate that they possess good character, honesty and integrity. The council finds further that in order to provide for effective regulation to ensure the lawful operation of gambling on vessels operating from New York city, it is necessary to establish a gambling control commission that shall be responsible for the licensing and regulation of businesses that conduct shipboard gambling.

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[Consolidated provisions are not included in this Appendix A]

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§ 3. The provisions of this local Law shall be severable and if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision or section of this local Law, or the applicability thereof to any person or circumstance, shall be held invalid by any court of competent jurisdiction, the remainder of this local Law and the application thereof shall not be affected thereby.

§ 4. The New York city gambling control commission is hereby authorized, immediately upon the effective date of this local law, to develop application and disclosure forms for the purposes of applications for licenses, certificates of approval and registrations pursuant to sections 20-954 and 20-955 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by section 2 of this local law, to establish fees for such applications and for background investigations, and to require the submission of such application and disclosure forms and fees within thirty days of having made such forms available by shipboard gambling businesses in operation as of such date, by persons employed as of such date by such businesses and, within sixty days, by vendors that would be subject to the provisions of sections 20-954 or 20-955 of the administrative code of the city of New York as added by section 2 of this local law. The commission shall, before the date on which application and disclosure forms are made available to vendors pursuant to this section, develop and make available a list of categories of vendors and/or amounts of sales of such goods or services that do not require obtaining a license as a key vendor or registration as an auxiliary vendor and may waive the requirement for a license or registration when, in its discretion, such license or registration is unnecessary to achieve the purposes of this local law. In addition, the chair of the commission may grant permission to a shipboard gambling business authorized to operate pursuant to section 5 of this local law to purchase goods or services on an expedited basis from an unlicensed or unregistered vendor when such purchase is necessary for the operation of such business. The commission shall, in addition, establish a procedure for the preliminary review of applications submitted by shipboard gambling business operating in New York city on or before one hundred and eighty days following the effective date of this local law and for provisional authorization for such businesses to operate following such preliminary review, pending completion of full review. At any time during or following such preliminary review that the commission finds reasonable cause to believe that an applicant lacks good character, honesty and integrity or that there are other reasons that may lead to the denial of a shipboard gambling license pursuant to section 20-956 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by section 2 of this local law, the commission may, in its sole discretion, refuse to issue a provisional authorization or revoke such an authorization. A provisional authorization to operate a shipboard gambling business granted by the commission pursuant to this section shall be deemed void upon the issuance or denial of an application for a shipboard gambling license.

§ 5. This local law shall take effect immediately, provided, however, that: (i) no enforcement of the requirement for a shipboard gambling license shall take place with respect to a shipboard gambling business operating on or before January 8, 1997 that has submitted completed application and disclosure forms and the fees established pursuant to section 4 of this local law to the New York city gambling control commission no later than thirty days following the date on which such forms have been made available by the commission and such application has not been denied; (ii) no enforcement of the requirement for a shipboard gambling license shall take place with respect to a shipboard gambling business operating in New York city on or before one hundred eighty days following the effective date of this local law that has submitted completed application and disclosure forms and the fees established pursuant to section 4 of this local law to the New York city gambling control commission and such application has not been denied, provided that such business has received a provisional authorization to operate from the New York city gambling control commission pursuant to section 4 of this local law and such provisional authorization has not been revoked or an application for a license been denied; (iii) no enforcement of the requirement for a key vendor license or a vendor registration shall take place with respect to a vendor furnishing goods or services to a shipboard gambling business described in (i) of this section where the vendor was furnishing goods or services prior to the effective date of this local law and such vendor has submitted completed application and disclosure forms and the fees established pursuant to section 4 of this local law to the New York city gambling control commission no later than sixty days following the date on which such forms have been made available by the commission pursuant to section 4 of this local law and such application has not been denied; provided that the commission shall make provision for temporary permission for a shipboard gambling business operating pursuant to this section to purchase goods or services from a vendor that has not provided goods or services to such business prior to the effective date of this local law provided that such vendor has submitted completed application and disclosure forms to the commission upon agreement to provide goods or services and such application has not been denied; (iv) no enforcement of the requirements set forth in subdivision 1 of section 20-963 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by section 2 of this local law shall take place with respect to a shipboard gambling business described in (i) of this section until ninety days following the date upon which applications and disclosure forms have been made available by the commission; (v) no enforcement of the requirement for a key vendor license or registration shall take place with respect to a vendor furnishing goods or services to a business described in (ii) of this section where such vendor has submitted completed application and disclosure forms to the commission by the time the provisional authorization has been issued to such business pursuant to section 4 of this local law and such application has not been denied; (vi) no enforcement of the requirement for a key employee license, a certificate of approval or an employee registration shall take place in regard to a person employed by a shipboard gambling business described in (i) of this section who has submitted the forms and the fees required by the commission no later than thirty days following the date on which such forms have been made available by the commission and such application has not been denied; (vii) no enforcement of the requirement for a key employee license, a certificate of approval or an employee registration shall take place in regard to a person employed by a shipboard gambling business described in (ii) of this section who has submitted the forms and the fees required by the commission no later than the date on which such business has been issued a provisional authorization by the commission and the application has not been denied; (viii) provided that the commission shall make provision for temporary permission for a shipboard gambling business operating pursuant to this section to employ persons who were not employed by such business prior to the effective date of this local law or at the time provisional authorization was issued to such business, provided that such persons have submitted completed application and disclosure forms and such application has not been denied.