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The New York State Gaming Commission regulates all aspects of gaming activity in the State, including horse racing and pari-mutuel wagering, Class III Indian Gaming, the state lottery (including video lottery terminals), commercial gaming, sports wagering, interactive fantasy sports, and charitable gaming. The New York Lottery was created to raise revenues to support education in New York State. The Lottery is unique in that it earns its revenue through sales, rather than through taxation or fees. Every Lottery retailer is a part of a successful public-private partnership that includes the Lottery administration, the private businesses that contract to provide tickets and sales support programs, and, most importantly, the retailers. The New York Lottery's sole mission is to earn revenue for education. The New York Lottery was enacted into the New York State Constitution by voters as a result of a referendum in 1966. It continues to be North America's largest and most profitable Lottery.

The Lottery currently licenses approximately 18,000 retail locations across the State. Each license to sell Lottery products represents an investment by the State in a retail location. All equipment, telephone costs, advertising materials—including marketing and maintenance support—are provided to the licensee at no cost in addition to a commission of six percent on every sale. In order to justify this investment, the Lottery must be assured of the retailer's ability to create new Lottery sales. If a new location merely redistributes sales from existing locations, it is not considered a justifiable investment. It is for this reason that the search for new retail locations now concentrates on reaching the broadest consumer base. By law, the decision to license a retailer must be based strictly on the Lottery's judgment that the partnership will create additional incremental sales for the Lottery, while reasonably compensating a retailer for the level of effort applied.

There are two Lottery retailer licensing options. A retailer may be selected to be a full-service retailer or, at select social locations, a Quick Draw® retailer. Every New York Lottery terminal features a Scratch-off Games automatic prize validating tool. This bar code technology not only makes sales and prize validation simple and convenient for the customer, it also provides the retailer with improved security and an automatic record of sales and purchases to facilitate bookkeeping. As a condition of licensing, all retailers must demonstrate: Commitment of sales and service personnel time throughout the business day and night, and Dedication of space for the location of the terminal, Instant Game tickets, and ancillary point-ofsale items The Quick Draw game is a computerized Lottery game occurring every few minutes requiring a full-service terminal and the most successful locations are those reflective of a social environment.

This dataset includes about 20,000 licensed retailers that sell lottery products in New York State, licensed by New York State Gaming Commission. Each retailer is registered with retailer ID, business name, locatioin, etc..

To give New Yorkers the access they deserve to government data and information, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo launched the Open NY initiative in March 2013 and signed Executive Order 95. It directs state agencies to identify, catalog, and publish their data on the state's open data website administered by the Office of Information Technology Services (ITS). Open NY increases transparency, improves government performance, empowers New Yorkers to participate in government, and encourages research and economic opportunities statewide.