S 652: Authorizes private membership establishments to have certain licenses for sale of alcohol for consumption on premises.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 652 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. GIANARIS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Govern- ment Operations AN ACT to amend the alcoholic beverage control law, in relation to authorizing private membership establishments to have certain licenses for sale of alcohol The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 3 of the alcoholic beverage control law is amended 2 by adding a new subdivision 39 to read as follows: 3 39. "Private membership establishment" shall mean an association oper- 4 ated by an individual, corporation, partnership, company, or any other 5 for-profit entity which is the owner, lessee, or occupant of a premises 6 used exclusively for such association's purposes, and which is operated 7 solely for a recreational, social, communal workspace or athletic 8 purposes. A "member" of a private membership establishment shall mean a 9 person who, whether a charter member or admitted in agreement with the 10 by-laws of such private membership establishment, has become a bona fide 11 member thereof, who maintains the private membership by the payment of 12 their annual dues in a bona fide manner in accordance with the by-laws 13 and whose name and address is entered on such private membership estab- 14 lishment's list of members. A private membership establishment must have 15 one hundred or more members and shall be subject to the provisions of 16 section one hundred ten of this chapter. Private membership establish- 17 ments may have ticketed events for their members or members' guests, but 18 a business or facility that sells tickets to the general public shall 19 not be considered a private membership establishment. 20 § 2. Subdivision 5 of section 64 of the alcoholic beverage control 21 law, as amended by chapter 258 of the laws of 1976, is amended to read 22 as follows: EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD00724-01-5 
 S. 652 2 1 5. No retail license under this section shall be granted except for 2 such premises as are being conducted as a bona fide hotel provided that 3 a restaurant is operated in such premises, restaurant, catering estab- 4 lishment, club, private membership establishment, railroad car, vessel 5 or aircraft being operated on regularly scheduled flights by a United 6 States certificated airline. 7 § 3. Subdivision 8 of section 106 of the alcoholic beverage control 8 law is amended to read as follows: 9 8. A private membership establishment, club or a luncheon club 10 licensed to sell alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption shall 11 be permitted to sell such beverages only to its members and to their 12 guests accompanying them. 13 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.