NYC Illegal Gambling Lawyer

What is Illegal Gambling in New York?     

New York’s criminal laws prescribe illegal gambling operations.  These laws do not make it a crime to merely place bets or engage in gambling as a player, for one’s own personal profit or pleasure.   Although those involved with illegal gambling businesses may, generally, be charged with either misdemeanor or felony level gambling offenses — oftentimes at the discretion of a prosecutor — regardless of their classification, these are serious crimes nonetheless and may result in jail or prison sentences even for first-time offenders.   

Promoting Gambling in the Second Degree

Promoting Gambling in the Second Degree is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.  A person may be charged with this offense when he or she knowingly advances or profits from unlawful gambling activity as those terms are defined under the law.  

New York law defines those who knowingly advance unlawful gambling activity as including those who materially aid or assist in unlawful gambling activity.  Examples of conduct that may be found to materially assist or advance gambling activity are creating, organizing,  operating, or promoting the gambling establishment, providing the location used for such activity, owning or maintaining gambling machinery, or working for the gambling operation. Profiting from unlawful gambling activity takes place where one receives money or property for participating in gambling activity.  

A person who is simply playing, betting, or gambling for his or her own personal account does not advance or profit from the operation of the gambling business.  So long as the player plays, bets, or gambles on equal terms to other such individuals and receives no fee or other payment for doing so, he or she may invite others to play or provide the location or cards or equipment without, under the law, assisting in the gambling business.   

Promoting Gambling in the First Degree

Promoting Gambling in the First Degree is a Class E felony punishable by up to four years in state prison.  A person may be charged with this offense when he or she engages in bookmaking as that term is defined and receives or accepts in any one day more than five bets totaling more than five thousand dollars, or when he or she receives, in connection with a lottery or policy scheme or enterprise as those terms are defined, money or written records from a person other than a player whose chances or plays are represented by such money or records or receives more than five thousand dollars in any one day of money played in such scheme or enterprise. These charges can be especially tricky to defend without an NYC illegal gambling lawyer who has dealt with similar types of cases, we always recommend speaking with an expert before declaring who will represent you in court.

• • Bookmaking is defined as advancing gambling activity by unlawfully accepting bets from customers as a business, rather than in a casual or personal fashion.  
  • A lottery refers to an unlawful gambling scheme in which players pay or agree to pay for the chance to win something of value-based upon an agreed-up reference to future combinations of numbers, or by drawing or other method involving an element of chance.   The law creates exceptions for raffles. Notably, it is a crime even if the lottery drawing takes place outside of New York state.  
  • A policy scheme or enterprise or a numbers game is defined under the law as a form of lottery in which the winning plays are not determined by a drawing but upon the outcome of future events unrelated to the particular scheme.  

Possession of Gambling Records in the Second Degree

Possession of Gambling Records in the Second Degree is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.  A person may be charged with this offense if he or she possesses, with knowledge of the contents or nature of writing, paper, instrument or article, an item commonly used in the operation or promotion of a bookmaking scheme or enterprise, an item commonly used in the operation, promotion or playing of a lottery or policy scheme or enterprise, or item chemically converted to nitrocellulose having explosive characteristics, or is an item made of water-soluble paper.      

Possession of Gambling Records in the First Degree

Possession of Gambling Records in the First Degree is a class E felony punishable by up to four years in state prison.  A person may be charged with this offense when he or she possesses, with knowledge of the contents of a writing, paper, instrument, or article, an item commonly used in the operation or promotion of a bookmaking scheme or enterprise that represents, constitutes, or reflects more than five bets totaling more than five thousand dollars, or an item that is commonly used in the operation, promotion or playing of a lottery or policy scheme or enterprise and represents, constitutes or reflects more than five hundred plays or chances. 

Possession of a Gambling Device

Possession of a Gambling Device is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.  A person may be charged with this offense when he or she, with knowledge of the character thereof, manufactures, sells, transports, places or possesses or conducts or negotiates any transaction relating to the ownership, custody, or use of a slot machine or any other gambling device believing that it is to be used to advance unlawful gambling activity.    

With regard to gambling crimes, New York law provides for a legal presumption relating to the element of knowing possession of unlawful gambling records or devices.  The statute states that proof of possession of any gambling device or record referred to by the crime under consideration is presumptive evidence regarding the accused’s knowledge of such items’ character or contents.    

Enterprise Corruption 

It is increasingly common for state prosecutors to seek indictments, in illegal gambling cases involving ongoing and profitable operations, for the serious felony of Enterprise Corruption.  While by no means limited to gambling prosecutions, charging this crime elevates a lower-level felony case to one of the highest classifications of felonies in New York — carrying with it a mandatory state prison sentence should one be convicted. 

Enterprise Corruption is a Class B felony punishable by up to twenty-five years in state prison and with a mandatory minimum sentence of one to three years in prison.  A person may be charged with this offense when, having knowledge of the existence of a criminal enterprise as that term is defined under the law and the nature of its activities, and is employed by or associated with such an enterprise, he or she intentionally conducts or participates in the affairs of the enterprise by participating in a pattern of criminal activity as that term is defined, or intentionally acquires or maintains an interest in an enterprise by participating in a pattern of criminal activity, or participates in a pattern of criminal activity and knowingly invests proceeds derived from such criminal activity in an enterprise. 

The Enterprise Corruption statute defines a criminal enterprise to mean a group of persons sharing a common purpose of engaging in criminal conduct, who are associated in an ascertainable structure distinct from a pattern of criminal activity and with continuity of existence, structure, and criminal purpose beyond the individual criminal acts engaged in. 

Under the law, a person participates in a “pattern of criminal activity” when, with intent to participate in or advance the affairs of the criminal enterprise, he or she engages in at least three criminal acts, two of which are felonies, one of which occurred within five years of being charged and each of which occurred within three years of the other.   Also under the law, the enterprise which is corrupted by an accused’s conduct need not be the criminal enterprise that such person is employed by or associated with.   Thus, a person may be charged with Enterprise Corruption even where the enterprise corrupted is a legitimate entity or operation.