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IRVINGTON, N.Y. A referendum to determine whether Irvington should allow raffles within the village has been set for Tuesday's general election. In order for the law to be adopted by the village, it must win by voter majority.
The law grants the village clerk authority to issue permits to hold raffles. The law does not allow other games of chance to take place.
This is just allowing us to run raffles, Mayor Brian Smith said. Really nothing further than that.
Lawrence Schopfer, village administrator, said the village realized it did not permit raffles after the parks and recreation department wanted to raise money for village events with a raffle. New York State law permits certain games of chance, but Schopfer said the village needed to have a law on the books saying the village clerk could issue permits.
Most neighboring communities have games of chance laws already, Schopfer said, but they're more comprehensive.
For expediency's sake, we're not recommending we get into other games of chance, Schopfer said, noting that when other communities passed their laws in the late '70s and early '80s, they had very complicated instructions for implementation.
It told me that very quickly those were very specific issues that were in the community and they probably debated them for a while, Schopfer said. We do not want to get into that here.
The referendum reads:
Shall there be approved in the Village of Irvington, Local Law No. 6 of 2011 enacting Chapter 127 [Games of Chance(Raffles)] of the Code of the Village of Irvington. Said local law permits duly licensed authorized organizations to conduct raffles in the Village of Irvington, subject to the New York State law regulating games of chance, and was enacted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Irvington on September 26, 2011.
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