MA to ban fantasy sports for people under 21

“He’s not entitled to unilaterally change the law”.

A Yahoo spokesman said the company does not comment on legal matters. How can Schneiderman suddenly claim something that has been considered “lawful” for the last eight years to all of a sudden be “unlawful”? The lawyer made this point repeatedly. But there are skillful sports gamblers and poker players who have to ply their trades illegally unless they want to live in Las Vegas, and anyone willing to slap down a dollar can make a legal bet on skill-less scratch-off state lotteries.

The biggest stakes for the mushrooming fantasy sports industry may be in California, which could hold the largest population of fantasy sports players in the nation.

“Attorney General Healey’s approach towards regulating fantasy sports makes a tremendous amount of sense – it provides strong protections for consumers and allows sports fans to continue doing something they love”, the company said in the statement.

Attorney David Boies, recently retained as counsel for DraftKings, outlined his client’s case in NY during a conference call with the media on Friday. Spokesmen for the two companies have long contended that they are offering skill-based contests. “Fantasy sports is a game of skill”, Negron said. But what used to be a game played between close friends in leagues with annual drafts is quickly evolving. Boies also pounced on the disclaimer that a very small percentage of DFS players actually win on a regular basis.

“FanDuel has been openly operating these contests in NY for nearly 8 years”, Boies said. NY law, however, states that activities that involve a “material element of chance” qualify as gambling.

FanDuel has since shut down operations in NY, but DraftKings has not.

NY is just one of several states where the daily fantasy sports industry is facing recent scrutiny.

If daily fantasy sports are ever welcomed back into NY State, it will be under heavy state regulation, with NY State taking a cut.

Above: Eric Schneiderman, attorney general of ny.

Healey said it is unclear whether the contests are illegal under state law and noted that other state authorities, including the legislature or gaming commission, could take other steps to rein in the games in MA. “We believe the attorney general’s view of this issue is based on an incomplete understanding of the facts about how our business operates and a fundamental misinterpretation and misapplication of the law”.

The latest action clouds Yahoo’s fantasy sports operations amid a legal battle by the office of the state’s attorney general to shut down two other services, DraftKings and FanDuel.

DraftKings and FanDuel deny that their games are “contests of chance”, typically the key element in definitions of gambling. How DraftKings accepted these payments is unclear, and Schneiderman has written that finding fault with the company along these lines is not his most pressing concern.