§ 185. Short title; purpose of article. This article shall be known
and may be cited as the games of chance licensing law. The legislature
hereby declares that the raising of funds for the promotion of bona fide
charitable, educational, scientific, health, religious and patriotic
causes and undertakings, where the beneficiaries are undetermined, is in
the public interest. It hereby finds that, as conducted prior to the
enactment of this article, games of chance were the subject of
exploitation by professional gamblers, promoters, and commercial
interests. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the legislature
that all phases of the supervision, licensing and regulation of games of
chance and of the conduct of games of chance, should be closely
controlled and that the laws and regulations pertaining thereto should
be strictly construed and rigidly enforced; that the conduct of the game
and all attendant activities should be so regulated and adequate
controls so instituted as to discourage commercialization of gambling in
all its forms, including the rental of commercial premises for games of
chance, and to ensure a maximum availability of the net proceeds of
games of chance exclusively for application to the worthy causes and
undertakings specified herein; that the only justification for this
article is to foster and support such worthy causes and undertakings,
and that the mandate of section nine of article one of the state
constitution, as amended, should be carried out by rigid regulations to
prevent commercialized gambling, prevent participation by criminal and
other undesirable elements and prevent the diversion of funds from the
purposes herein authorized.