AG’s office to take legal action against illegal sports

“As we said, this week was only the beginning of the legal process”.

DraftKings has hired Randy Mastro, Rudy Giuliani’s deputy mayor, as its chief counsel according to the NY Post.

Supporters of daily fantasy sports are rallying in front of the NY Attorney General’s Office to demand the right to keep playing.

DraftKings said in its lawsuit that Schneiderman was “using strong-arm tactics and defying the rule of law”.

In response to the lawsuit against his office, Schneiderman said in a statement that his job “is to enforce ny State law”, and that his office will continue its efforts to shut down the companies.

DraftKings accused Schneiderman of abusing his authority by threatening to take action against payment processors Vantiv Inc and PayPal Holdings Inc.

Reuters reports that DraftKings, a fantasy football betting website will be suing to stop the shutdown of fantasy football betting in NY State.

The NY court cases could help settle this debate over games of skill vs. chance-or perhaps even contribute to the creation of a new category.

“Anyone who asks us about the legality of online sports betting will be told exactly what we wrote in our letters: DraftKings and FanDuel are operating illegal gambling operations”, his office said. The state has carved out a few exceptions including horse racing and the state lottery, but each change required amending the constitution.

“I do think in here in MA this is a legal activity and for me the big issue is making sure the consumer protection piece is taken care of”, said Gov. Charlie Baker.

Essentially, both companies believe that Eric T. Schneiderman, NY’s Attorney General, has unrightfully classified daily fantasy sports as gambling by misinterpreting NY’s gambling laws.

The Department of Justice has expressed its opinion on fantasy sports in the past. Traditional, season-long fantasy sports are not implicated by the AG’s action. Normally, the data is not released until after certain games are played.

But the companies are fighting back hard.

Haas said DraftKings plans to offer its familiar range of NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and NHL contests in the United Kingdom but with a special emphasis on professional soccer, including the English Premier League, North America’s Major League Soccer and Europe’s Champions League.

Top daily fantasy sports companies are fiercely rejecting the idea that their rapidly growing industry should be considered gambling in the United States.

In the past month, FanDuel and its U.S. rival DraftKings have been banned in half a dozen states.

Disclosure: Comcast and NBC are investors in FanDuel.