MA OKs fantasy sports betting

Regardless, Boies was adamant that DraftKings should and will continue to offer its services to NY state residents, even though a cease-and-desist order has been filed and its chief competitor FanDuel has abided by the request. But does that make people less likely to play?

According to Sali, the current battle between DFS companies and the Attorney General is a tricky one to understand. He drew a sharp distinction between the operations of daily fantasy sports sites and traditional fantasy leagues, which he said were legal partly because they relied on months of smart play over the course of a season. But what used to be a game played between close friends in leagues with annual drafts is quickly evolving. For more than a century, NY laws have banned gambling.

In addition to the controversy of skill or chance, Schneiderman argued the companies are based on business models identical to banned forms of gambling in the state already. MA Attorney General Maura Healy announced new rules for the industry earlier this week, including prohibitions on players under age 21 from participating and on games based on college sports.

That data appears to come from this spreadsheet, which shows that NY in 2014 generated $25.6 million in “entry fees” and $2.5 million in revenue, second only to California’s $34.2 million in fees and $3.4 million in revenue.

None of these regulations would add significant costs to the companies, and by not going further, Healey gave them permission to have at it. She did say she was keeping open the option to take further action against daily fantasy companies, although she has said previously that she’s not looking to shut them down.

“They’re legal”, Boies said.

Both companies say they have hundreds of thousands of customers in NY. In an email to members this week, Paul Charchian, the president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, said the AG’s focus is only daily fantasy operators and investigators haven’t considered season-long contests. Good poker players often beat novices.

Speaking in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, DraftKings lawyer David Boies argued that NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is trying to put his client out of business without due process, saying that the company has operated in the state for almost four years without any problems. Thus, DraftKings and FanDuel not only WANTED to recruit as many players as possible to become overwhelming market leaders, but now, with the insane guarantees, they HAD to. If two people, one person a “skilled” gambler and another with no gambling experience, walked into a casino and sat down at a roulette wheel, there’s a decent chance that the person with no gambling experience can get lucky and win more. Robins said there was no need to “operate consistently with UIGEA” given his belief that DraftKings has done “extensive testing” that proved golf and NASCAR DFS contests were skill games and thus legal under state law.

OK, so that’s a slam dunk for the attorney general.

However, the legality of certain types of gambling is contingent upon whether or not chance is the predominant factor.