(a) Except as provided in section three of this article, only persons, as defined in section two of this article, who are residents of this state and who are active members of any charitable or public service organization which has been in existence in this state for at least two years prior to filing an application for a raffle license issued pursuant to section five or six of this article may hold raffle occasions in accordance with the provisions of this article during the time it holds a valid license.

(b) Application for a raffle license shall be made to the Tax Commissioner and shall be on a form supplied by him or her. The application shall contain the information required by section eight of this article and any other information which the commissioner considers necessary. No raffle may be held and no tickets may be sold pursuant to this article until the raffle application has been approved by the Tax Commissioner and the license has been received by the applicant: Provided, That no raffle occasion may be held and no raffle tickets may be sold until a sixty day filing period, which is that time period between the receipt of that application by the Tax Commissioner and the first raffle occasion, has expired: Provided, however, That the Tax Commissioner shall send the applicant its license within five days after the application is approved. If the sixty day filing period has expired and the application has not been denied and the raffle license has not been received by the applicant, the applicant may consider the application approved and begin to sell tickets for the raffle or hold the raffle occasion. The Tax Commissioner shall send the applicant its license within five days after the expiration of the filing period if the application has not been otherwise denied.

(c) For purposes of this article, any application for an annual license or a limited occasion license received prior to the effective date of this article is considered filed on the effective date.

(d) No raffle license issued pursuant to this article may be transferred.