Commission maintained lists of Vendors, Junkets and Excluded Persons

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:

The most recent version of the Commission's list of licensed casino vendors and pending applicants for casino vendors' licenses, pursuant to 9 CRR-NY 5307 ("Vendor Licensing and Registration,"); Commission's most recent list of licensed junkets, junket enterprises and junket representatives pursuant to 9 CRR-NY 5308 ("Junket Operator Licensing"); the most recent version of the Commission's Patron Exclusion List pursuant to 9 CRR-NY 5327 ("Excluded Persons").

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

T. McElwee

To whom it may concern:

This is an appeal of the Gaming Commission's denial of my FOIL request. I requested the following: A list of licensed casino vendors and applicants; a list of holders and applicants for casino junket licenses; and a list of excluded patrons.

I have been denied on all three of these requests. On the first two, I have been told that no responsive records (for vendors and junkets). On the last, I have been denied on the grounds of privacy.

Addressing the first two: I must express that I find the claim that there are no lists of licensed casino vendors or junket operators dubious, given that the Commission exists to review the qualifications of licenses. I find it implausible that the Commission could perform this task without producing a basic inventory of applicants, those who are accepted and those rejected.

Addressing the last (excluded persons list): I want to first clarify, I am NOT requested any list of persons who have self-excluded for reasons of mental health or their own preference.

I am seeking the list of persons the Commission is barring from gaming facilities under 9 CRR-NY 5327, which governs involuntary exclusion for public safety and integrity purposes. I must protest that by its nature, the Excluded Persons List is supposed to be public, made as explicit as possible by the clause "The commission shall maintain such list on the commission’s website."

The failure (thus far) of the Commission to follow through on posting this list on the web does not change that said list is public by its very nature. Every other state with an Excluded Persons list makes said list available to the public in the interests of both public safety and maintaining the integrity of gaming.

My takeaway is that this request has been granted in part (lists of vendors) and rejected in part (exclusion list, on grounds of non-existance).

I look forward to the lists of vendors being produced within the timetable (5 business days) detailed here. If it makes it any faster or easier, it is acceptable for the lists of vendors may be exported to .TXT or .CSV files and not necessarily any format requiring further processing (like .PDF).

My thanks for your time and (re-)consideration.