BILL NUMBER: S6970
SPONSOR: ADDABBO
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the tax law, in relation to unsold instant lottery game
tickets
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Provides that the State Division of Lottery shall redistribute instant
lottery game tickets if a licensed lottery agent goes out of business or
sells their business, or if a person's license is suspended or revoked.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends Subdivision b of § 1604 of the Tax Law to direct the
division to redistribute unsold instant lottery game tickets to other
sales agents when a lottery sales agent goes out of business or sells
their business.
Section 2 amends § 1607 of the Tax Law to direct the division to redis-
tribute unsold instant lottery game tickets to other sales agents when a
lottery sales agent's license is suspended or revoked.
Section 3 provides the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
When instant lottery games are created there are a certain number of
grand prizes in the game. When the last grand prize has been claimed,
the Division of Lottery will end the game. However, when a lottery agent
goes out of business or sells their business to another person, the
Division reclaims the scratch off tickets and puts them into storage. If
there is a grand prize on one of those scratch off tickets, the instant
lottery game does not end because the last grand prize has not been
awarded. That means, people buying tickets think they may win a grand
prize, but the grand prize ticket is not in fact in circulation. This
bill provides that any unused scratch-off tickets reclaimed by the Divi-
sion must be distributed to other sales agents so the games can end when
there are no more grand prizes to be awarded.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
No fiscal impact.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S6970: 1604 tax law, 1604(b) tax law