1012. Account wagering. Racing associations and corporations, franchised corporations, off-track betting corporations and multi-jurisdictional account wagering providers may apply to the commission to be licensed to offer account wagering.
1. Racing associations and corporations, franchised corporations, off-track betting corporations and multi-jurisdictional account wagering providers may form partnerships, joint ventures, or any other affiliations or contractual arrangement in order to further the purposes of this section. Multi-jurisdictional account wagering providers involved in such joint affiliations or contractual arrangements shall follow the same distributional policy with respect to retained commissions as a multi-jurisdictional account wagering provider defined in this article.
* 1-a. Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, any multi-jurisdictional account wagering providers involved in such joint affiliations or contractual arrangements authorized in subdivision one of this section which was entered into on or before the first of January, two thousand fourteen may continue to follow the same distributional policy with respect to retained commissions as their in-state affiliate or contractual partner through the thirty-first of December, two thousand sixteen.
* NB Repealed January 1, 2017
2. The commission shall promulgate rules and regulations to license and regulate all phases of account wagering.
3. The commission shall specify a non-refundable application fee which shall be paid by each applicant for an account wagering license or renewal thereof.
4. Account wagering licensees shall utilize personal identification numbers and such other technologies as the commission may specify to assure that only the account holder has access to the advance deposit wagering account.
5. Account wagering licensees shall provide for: a. withdrawals from the wagering account only by means of a check made payable to the account holder and sent to the address of the account holder or by means of an electronic transfer to an account held by the verified account holder or b. that the account holder may withdraw funds from the wagering account at a facility approved by the commission by presenting verifiable personal and account identification information.
6. Account wagering licensees may engage in interstate wagering transactions only where there is compliance with chapter fifty-seven of title fifteen of the United States code, commonly referred to as the "interstate horse racing act".
7. The account holder's deposits to the wagering account shall be submitted by the account holder to the account wagering licensee and shall be in the form of one of the following: a. cash given to the account wagering licensee; b. check, money order, negotiable order of withdrawal, or wire or electronic transfer, payable and remitted to the account wagering licensee; or c. charges made to an account holder's debit or credit card upon the account holder's direct and personal instruction, which instruction may be given by telephone communication or other electronic means to the account wagering licensee or its agent by the account holder if the use of the card has been approved by the account wagering licensee.
8. a. Each wager shall be in the name of a natural person and shall not be in the name of any beneficiary, custodian, joint trust, corporation, partnership or other organization or entity.
b. A wagering account may be established by a person completing an application form approved by the commission and submitting it together with a certification, or other proof, of age and residency. Such form shall include the address of the principal residence of the prospective account holder and a statement that a false statement made in regard to an application may subject the applicant to prosecution.
c. The prospective account holder shall submit the completed application to the account wagering licensee. The account wagering licensee may accept or reject an application after receipt and review of the application and certification, or other proof, of age and residency for compliance with this section.
d. No person other than the person in whose name an account has been established may issue wagering instructions relating to that account or otherwise engage in wagering transactions relating to that account.
9. A wagering account shall not be assignable or otherwise transferable.
10. Except as otherwise provided in this article or in regulations which the commission may adopt pursuant thereto, all account wagers shall be final and no wager shall be canceled by the account holder at any time after the wager has been accepted by the account wagering licensee.
11. Dormant accounts shall be treated as abandoned property pursuant to section three hundred of the abandoned property law.
12. Account wagering providers must possess appropriate totalizator and accounting controls that will safeguard the transmission of wagering data and will keep a system of accounts which will maintain a separate record of revenues and an accounting of costs relative to the operation of the wagering provider.
13. Wagers placed with the account wagering providers shall result in the combination of all wagers placed with such provider with the wagering pools at the host track so as to produce common pari-mutuel betting pools for the calculation of odds and the determination of payouts from such pools, which payout shall be the same for all winning tickets, irrespective of whether a wager is placed at a host track or at an account wagering provider.
14. Any account wagering licensee may require a minimum account balance in an amount to be determined by such entity.
15. a. Any regional off-track betting corporation may suspend collection of the surcharge imposed under section five hundred thirty-two of this chapter on winning wagers placed in wagering accounts maintained by such regional corporation.
b. In a city of one million or more any regional off-track betting corporation, with the approval of the mayor of such city, may suspend collection of the surcharge imposed under section five hundred thirty-two of this chapter in winning wagers placed in wagering accounts maintained by such regional corporation.
16. The maintenance and operation of such wagering accounts provided for in this section shall be subject to rules and regulations of the commission. The commission shall include in such regulation a requirement that wagering account information pertaining to surcharge and nonsurcharge wagering accounts shall be separately reported.
17. For the purposes of this section, "telephone wagering accounts" shall mean and include all those wagers which utilize any wired or wireless communications device, including but not limited to wireline telephones, wireless telephones and the internet to transmit the placement of wagers on races and special events offered by any regional off-track betting corporation, and any harness, thoroughbred, quarter horse racing association or corporation licensed or franchised to conduct pari-mutuel racing in this state.
18. Every racing association, off-track betting corporation, franchised corporation, harness, thoroughbred, quarter horse racing association or corporation or other entity licensed or franchised in this state to conduct pari-mutuel racing and wagering, or authorized to conduct races within the state, which operates a wagering account for the acceptance of wagers, shall locate the call center where such wagers are received within the state of New York.
Last modified: February 3, 2019