NY to DraftKings and FanDuel: cease-and-desist

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Schneiderman’s finding Tuesday that DraftKings and FanDuel were running illegal gambling operations reverberated widely through the daily sports fantasy industry and beyond. Meant to evade the law and fleece sports fans. With FanDuel and DraftKings (and competitors including Yahoo), fans can choose a new fantasy team for each day on which their sport has games going.

Rep. Chris Collins of NY said in a statement this week that Schneiderman had made a “draconian decision” that was “unilaterally denying hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers … the ability to compete in this game of skill“.

“Given the NY attorney general’s historic role as a consumer-protection advocate, legal experts said the action was likely to reverberate in other states where legislators and investigators are increasingly questioning whether the industry should operate unfettered by regulations that govern legalized gambling”, The NY Times reported.

FanDuel and DraftKings contend their daily contests are legal because they are based on skill, not chance, but Schneiderman concluded the opposite.

Writing in the comments section on ESPN, Austin Weber perhaps said it best: “They should make the commercials illegal too”.

DraftKings and FanDuel have five business days to respond to Schneiderman’s order and continue to take money from customers in the state. “Just because it’s gambling doesn’t make it illegal”, Healey said.

But no fantasy sports company has been prosecuted under Florida law.

“There are a few (lawmakers) who actually have played the game, understand how it works and are big fans”, Coakley said, declining to name who she’s met with.

Who did these two upstart fantasy sports businesses thinks they were, horning in on the government’s gambling action.

Jones calls this eagerness to align with pay-for-play fantasy sports a “fundamental shift” in leagues’ stance on gambling, and the relationships have enabled massive marketing campaigns. “FanDuel believes a NY court would disagree” with the attorney general’s mandate.

Collins serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is the primary panel overseeing these games on the federal level.

The companies have insisted that their contests aren’t “gambling” because their customers engage in games that require more skill than chance, and they reiterated that argument in response to Schneiderman’s decision.

DraftKings and FanDuel won’t be leaving the state without a fight.

On Tuesday night, Congressman Chris Collins released a statement reading, “New York’s attorney general once again proved that he is singularly focused on grabbing newspaper headlines”.

FanDuel attorney Zwillinger told reporters that they looked forward to meeting with the attorney general and were prepared to state their case. If it’s something the state ought to favor, the senator wants to determine how exactly what should be legal – bets in office pools or full blown daily games. If they don’t, Schneiderman’s letter to the companies notes he intends to file a lawsuit, though officials from both companies say they will fight it. Thus, many argue, its also a factor in fantasy sports — especially daily fantasy sports, where outcomes are determined over the course of a single day rather than allowing a contestant to strategize over the course of a season.