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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1980-05-27 TOWN OF GROTON PUBLIC HEARING Held in the Town Hall , Groton , New York Tuesday - May 27 , 1980 8 : 00 P . M . PRFS CN `1' : T . Robinson - Town Supervisor G . Totman - Town Planning Board C . Pierson - Town Clerk J . Williams F . Carey as Town Councilman A . Collier D . VanBenschoten - Town Councilman D . Moore V . Rankin as Town Councilman L . Rodee Be Bucko as Town Attorney M . Gallow L . Sovocool - Town Councilman o J . Bell - Recording Clerk T . Robinson : We ' ll open the hearing now . (Mrs . Robinson read aloud the Notice of Public Hearing for the purpose of con - sidering the adoption of an ordinance pro - viding for the conduct of Games of Chance in the Town of Groton , which was published in the Journal and Courier May 14 , 1980 , a copy of which is on file in the Town Clerk ' s office . ) T . Robinson : Who would like to be heard first ? Be Bucko : Let me explain something - - the games of chance they are talking about , and the only ones that are legal , are spelled out in the manual submitted by the Race and Wagering Board . I ' ll go through the games . The types of games are craps , roulette , blackjack , Big 6 , hazard , Over and Under 7 , Beat the Dealer , merchandise wheels , Big 9 and any other game that is approved by the Board . Bingo comes under a public law and you have to have a permit to have bingo if you ' re going to invite people . Now what will happen here is , if the Board passes this ordinance , an election will be held at a date and time and place set by the Town Board . After the voters approve it then the ordinance will have to be submitted to the Racing and Wagering Board for approval and , upon approval , they will then issue a number and permission to the Town Clerk to issue licenses to organizations who qualify to run those games of, chance . Those organizations will have to apply for a license and the Town Clerk will have to investigate them to see if they qualify to operate these games . Once the licenses are issued then those organizations can run the games I mentioned . They must keep accurate records of every game they run , the money they receive , the prizes they award and the sheriff of Tompkins County through his 1 40 B . Bucko : deputies will be er►forcing the law to make sore they are j running the games in accordartce with the rules and regu� lations of the Mace and Wagering Board . If you have a number of games you have to record all the money you took in and all the prizes you gave and all your expenses . It ' s going to be a lot of bookkeeping and you can expect the shexi U or someone from the Racing and Wagering Board to drop in on you . Now you can have games on Sunday except on Easter Sunday , Christmas and New Year ' s Lire . As far as prizes axe concerned whoever gets the supplies wi11 get this book to show what salaries to pay for book - keepers and so forth . You have to get the supplies from people who are licensed to sell the supplies and you have to give financial statements , cash control , all the gray down and you can only have 12 games a year or L2 parties a year . Once a month or something like that . T . Robinson : Any questions ? Does anybody have any comments ? S . Bucko : Raffles will be illegal , _ _ anything you run from now on will be scrutinized by local police and State police . The D , A , is going to start clamping down and he has already served notice to the municipalities that the games of chance they are running are illegal so if anyone wants to take a chance they are welcome to do so but according to the Racing and W agertng Board they say you can make more money on ghat you ' re allowed to do than what you ' re doing at the present time . I ' m just telling you what the situation is in Tomp - Cins County , All because some organization from Cornell wanted to have a Monte Carlo night at the Ramada lnn , - - this started the whole thing . What the organizations want to do is up to then . D . Moore : As far as the Legion is concerned because of the fact that we didn ' t conduct one of our seven fun nights this last year we ' re unable to sponsor the baseball program this year . We were short that much moTtey for uniforms and so forth and felt we couldn ' t support the program this year and in years past this has been of benefit to the young people and we would like to go on record as being in favor of it . I don ' t see &nyone from the Fire Department but , as a retired member , T don ' t think they have had any games of chance that would fall in this category but I ' m sure they {x*ould be in favor of the ordinance , C . Totman : Ben , - -undez this new Late , - " there ' s rto way a raffle can be made legal ? $ . Bucko : It ' s illegal . The guy from the Racing and Wagering Board was right here and he etated specifically that all raffles are illegal . He knows they are going to go on but they are illegal . L . Sovocool : lie also stated that they axe considering adding raffles to this . 2 T . Robinsorn : The other thing is it says and " other games of chance " so if you had some formula set up for something and they approved of it you wouldn ' t have any problem . B . Bucko : kaff les are a lottery Cicket and the State of New York has preempted the field by having their own . J . Williams ; Does this mean that supposing you have a turkey raffle do you have to get a license for each individuaL raffle ? 3 . Bucko : you get au application from the Town Clerk and file it and she approves it and you get a license . J . Williams : is there a fee ? I B . Bucko : Yes , a small fee . T . Robinson : Your license goes over a period of time so that you have at least 12 games . B . Bucko : Yes , you can have 12 games . G . To Wan : You mean 12 games or 12 sessions of games ? S . Bucko : 12 sessions once a month . J . Williams : It says regular games of chance " craps , blackjack " and so on but you can ' t have a Monte Carlo night? B . Bucko : You can ' t now but you can when you get a license . G . Totman : The first license can be for no more than one year . B . Bucko : Yeah . L . Sovocool : Also , they will tell you that you can put $ 200 in the bank and once that is lost that game is over with , you can no Longer 'run xt because that ' s all the house can lose - - the $ 200 * once that is lost, that game is closed . J . Williams : But you can run the others ? T . Robinson : The thing is this is to protect the organization as well as the parson who is betting . Any other questions ? Does anyone else have any questions ? B . Bucko : In fact , - -any organization , - - there ' s one thing that is very important , - - you are going to have to have a list of every member in your I]epa-ctment , like the Fire Department or the Legion . But you ' re going to have to have that list avail - able for inspection at any time too & ' . Robinson : So that only a member is running the games . 3 - A Aucico : Right , - - they are the only ones that cart work and anyone convicted of a crime cannot work on any one of those games . T . Robinson : Are there -any other comments or 4uestioas '? George , do you have anything more ? G . Totman : too , Z guess not . T . Robirkson : Well , - - that ' s it . We ' ll close the hearing . Thank you for coming , The hearing closed at 8 : 20 P . M . Respec fully submitted , Jos phinBBell i 4