State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, is pictured debating legislation legalizing electronic bell jars early Friday morning in the state Senate.

Sen. George Borrello’s final debate during this year’s legislative session found the senator in a familiar position – opposing a bill passed overwhelmingly by Democrats in the state Senate.

The bill in question – S.6351B – would provide a pure entertainment form of a “bell jar” vending machine that has been a fundraising device for charitable and fraternal organizations. The electronic form of bell jar machines would inhibit the purchase of illegal bell jar tickets and the manipulation of the outcome of bell jar games and provide new accounting devices that will provide regulators with assurances that bell jar games are conducted in accordance with law.

A version of S.6351 was passed in 2018 and vetoed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo because it violated the state’s compact with the Seneca Nation of Indians. The bill had not made it out of committee in the years since until this year, when it was the second-to-last piece of legislation passed by the state Senate in the 2025 legislative session.

Sen. Joseph Addabbo, D-Woodhaven and chair of the Senate Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering, said the new bill addresses the 2018 veto message by limiting electronic bell jars to geographic areas that don’t violate existing state gaming compacts as well as limiting the number of members an organization can have to remain eligible for an electronic bell jar game. Addabbo said the previous bill allowed electronic bell jars to look like slot machines, which triggered opposition from some in the gaming industry, including the Seneca Nation of Indians.

Now, the electronic bell jars are no longer games and simply dispense tickets.

Borrello asked Addabbo what portion of an electronic bell jar’s revenue the state receives. Addabbo said the state typically receives 5% of the revenue, with Borrello countering the Senecas are paying 25% under the gaming compact.

“Understand this is for charitable organizations,” Addabbo said. “We’re not looking to balance the budget here or solve a deficit. This is for veterans groups, this is for charitable organizations. So the bottom line is the 5% to the state, this is not where we’re making our money. This is for charitable organizations.”

Borrello was one of four senators to vote against S.6351, with Sen. Liz Krueger, D-New York City and chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Rob Ortt, R-Buffalo and Senate minority leader; and Sen. James Skoufis, D-Cornwall and chair of the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, also voting against the bill. The legislation has not yet passed the state Assembly, whose session was scheduled to end Thursday as well.

“Representing the Seneca Nation, I have learned a lot of things and one of the main things I learned is the state has really saturated the gaming market,” Borrello said. “I understand this is a small percentage of it, it is strictly for these clubs and nonprofit organizations. But at the end of the day we really saturated the market for gaming in New York state and it hurt the Senecas, it’s hurt in general the revenue the state is supposed to be receiving. While this is certainly not a big piece of that pie, it is death by 1,000 cuts when it comes to how gaming is being operated here in New York state. So I’ll be a no on this bill.”