A.8569 by Assemblyman Burling

AN ACT to repeal subdivision h of section 1607 of the tax law, relating to

suspension of a lottery license for a violation of article 13-F of the public health law

The New York Association of Convenience Stores is a private, not-for-profit trade association representing the interests of nearly 6,000 neighborhood mini-marts and convenience stores, most of which are licensed by the State of New York to responsibly sell tobacco products and lottery tickets.

Public Health Law amendments enacted on September 1, 2000 require that if a retailer's tobacco license is suspended for an underage sale, his lottery license is suspended as well.

We commend Assemblyman Burling for recognizing that there is no justification for linking the two licenses and they should be uncoupled.

First, the State of New York maintains separate law, separate agencies, separate licenses, separate license fees, and separate enforcement for lottery and tobacco. Therefore the license actions should be separate.

Second, suspension of the lottery license denies due process in that it penalizes the retailer based not on an act of selling lottery tickets to a minor, but a presumption that the store may do so in the future based on a tobacco violation. That's like saying if you get a speeding ticket, you should have your hunting license suspended, because if you violated the Vehicle and Traffic Law, you will probably violate the Conservation Law too.

Third, it's hypocritical for the State to pre-emptively suspend lottery licenses in the name of protecting minors from gambling while the Lottery Division itself is making lottery tickets increasingly visible and accessible to minors by placing unsupervised instant-ticket vending machines in hundreds of commercial establishments across the state.

In fairness, the automatic lottery-license suspension associated with tobacco license suspension should be repealed.

A.8569 by Assemblyman Burling

James S. Calvin

President, NYACS

June 5, 2005