Stafford Fire Department’s Annual Corvette Raffle Shut Down By NY Gaming Authority

The Stafford, NY Volunteer Fire Department has been holding a raffle at its annual carnival for over 70 years. According the CorvetteBlogger, the event was canceled after a whistleblower tipped off the New York Gaming Authority in regards to this year’s Chevrolet Corvette raffle.

“The law hasn’t kept up with technology,” said Barry Flansburg, a member of the department. “Why hasn’t somebody looked at Stafford and said, ‘Look how forward thinking they were,’ instead of crying, ‘Oh, they broke the law.’ Why aren’t we congratulating Stafford on their creative way of making money, money that doesn’t come out of the taxpayers’ pockets?”

The Gaming Authority shut the raffle down because the fire department’s license restricted their ticket sales to within their own county. The outdated laws don’t allow for tickets to be sold online or paid with credit cards. That means the Nassau Blue 1965 Corvette Sting Ray Convertible that was already purchased will go ‘unraffled’, and that the funds already donated for this year’s raffle will have to be returned. The annual summer carnival will also be canceled, as it was paid for with proceeds from the raffle donations.

“Whoever turned us in didn’t think about the $5,000 we gave to Mercy Flight each year,” said Stanley Gere, trustee and long time member of the fire department . “Or the equipment it enabled us to purchase to protect the community. Or the children from the State School for the Blind, who we sponsored to a day at the carnival. Or for that matter, the carnival itself, which was supported by the raffle.”