BUFFALO, N.Y. — The governor signed the Charitable Gaming Act into law in December 2017.

The bill required the New York State Gaming Commission to develop and approve regulations allowing the law to take effect June 2018. In 2021, the regulations still don't exist.

"It really illustrates a government not working properly," state Senator Pat Gallivan, R-Elma, said.

The legislation makes two major changes to the current state law. First it allows people to buy charity raffle tickets with their debit or credit card.

It also allows for those purchases to happen online, significantly expanding the reach of fundraisers.

"You can just picture all of those charities  over the past four years that have not been able to do that that have lost out, and all of the good that could have been done with the money that was raised by the charities, and all the people that could have been helped that haven't," Gallivan said.

The Republican, who sponsored the bill, said he has regularly been in contact with the gaming commission, but doesn't know why it hasn't promulgated the regulations yet. However, there is a significant factor this year he hopes might actually lead to it happening: the passage of online and mobile sports wagering, which is also awaiting regulations.

"Now that they're going to be dealing with people betting online and they're coming up with rules to verify people's ages, rules to put in place that people have to follow for online sports betting, it just makes sense to me that a similar set of rules can and should be put in place for charitable gaming," Gallivan said.

In August last year, the Gaming Commission told Spectrum News it had considered the necessary regulations and authorized them to be published but not formally adopted. Tuesday, a spokesperson did not immediately have a statement but said he would work to get back with more information.