SB 549, 50/50 raffles signed by Governor!

[boardman]

SB 549 by Senator Isadore Hall (D-Compton) was signed by the Governor. SB 549 will allow professional sports teams, at their games, to operate a raffle for a nonprofit charity, where 50% of the proceeds go to the winner of the raffle and 50% go to the nonprofit organization. This done in over 29 other states. This will allow for fans who attend professional sporting events to voluntarily participate in the raffle, directly benefiting the charity.

This could be a huge benefit for eligible Veterans Service Organizations! By eligible, I mean legitimate, registered veterans service organizations, which I will help the sports teams to vet. As we all have seen since 9-11, there has been a proliferation of unscrupulous organizations hiding behind the guise of helping veterans, only to be later discovered that they were directing the money to their own personal gain. SB 549 also has provisions that the CA Department of Justice can take legal action against a charity who's conduct that is not in the best interests of the public’s health, safety, or general welfare.

All of the major California Veterans Service Organizations were in active support of this bill.

I will be reaching out to pro sports teams (who I worked with during the bill's progress through the legislative process) on your behalf. Again, one of my jobs will be to ensure that sports teams do not unknowingly select organizations that purport to help veterans, but in fact mislead the public on where the funds go, large overhead costs, etc.

Since your organization was a supporter of this bill, you should be in an excellent position to be one of the first groups to be offered an early opportunity to participate in a 50/50 raffle at a professional sporting event. Professional sporting organizations are defined in the bill as a team established by, affiliated with, or a team of Major League Baseball, NHL NBA, NFL, WNBA, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, PGA, and LPGA. Minor league teams affiliated with these organizations are therefore eligible.

As with many state laws, guidelines must first be developed to regulate the program. The regulations for these 50/50 raffles must go through an established state process known as the CA Administrative Procedures Act. SB 549 stipulates that the CA Department of Justice adopt, on or before June 1, 2016, regulations necessary to effectuate the provisions of this bill. Therefore, there is plenty of time for us to plan out how we will approach this.