NY Removes Temporary Steward Edict on Commissioners

In New York, altering any of the colossal set of state racing laws is always a challenge, even for the most simple-sounding of amendments.

Consider Section 218 of the Racing, Pari-Mutuel Wagering and Breeding Law. Once, there was a solid theory for having on the books that particular statute, which required that a member of the state regulatory panel overseeing the racing industry would serve as a temporary race steward if the agency's appointed steward was absent or there was an inability to appoint either of the other two stewards—who are appointed by The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred corporation where a race was occurring.

But that was in the day when the New York State Racing and Wagering Board existed and its commission members were paid full-time salaries.

The successor to that agency, the New York State Gaming Commission, has been in place since 2013, and its commission members serve without salaries.

So, since at least 2016, there have been efforts to simply do away with that edict in Section 218—a change that only required the deletion of six words and the addition of one word. Each year, the idea has failed to get passage in both houses of the legislature. For a time, it died in the New York State Assembly. Then it died in the Senate in more recent times.

This year, though, it passed with ease in both houses and was signed a week ago into law by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The state Gaming Commission notes its predecessor agency never actually even needed to appoint one of its board members on an emergency basis to fill in as a steward at a track.

"As Gaming commissioners are now per-diem employees, this procedural change just removes that eligibility and burden,'' Brad Maione, a NYSGC spokesman, said of the change from the old to new provisions. The agency was the chief promoter of changing the law.

Lawmakers who authored the bill this year—Sen. Joseph Addabbo and Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato, both Queens Democrats— said in a written explanation of their measure that it was "realistic" to require full-time commission members of the old Racing and Wagering Board "to add to their job duties the necessity of filling in for a steward at a Thoroughbred racetrack."

But she said current Gaming Commission members are volunteers with jobs outside government and that it would be "unduly burdensome" for them to have to "devote uncompensated time to performing temporary steward duties." They noted that commission members might lack the basic background and expertise to perform the many tasks required of stewards.

A better system, the lawmakers stated in their new law, would be if a need ever arose for a temporary steward that the commission could appoint and pay someone with the knowledge necessary to perform the job.