Should DFS Sites Like FanDuel And DraftKings Be Considered ‘Gambling’?

“We appreciate that, in addition to Attorney General Healey, a number of state regulators and other authorities are taking a reasoned approach to the Fantasy Sports industry that considers the interests of sports fans”, DraftKings, a daily fantasy sports company, told Reuters.

The law distinguished gambling on fantasy sports as a game of skill rather than chance like, say, online poker, making it fully legal in almost all states except those – including Arizona, Iowa and Montana – where local laws ban such betting. Professional athletes or individuals connected to the sports industry would not be able to participate in DFS as well. This month, New York’s attorney general moved to shut down FanDuel and DraftKings in his state on the basis that they are illegal gambling operations.

DraftKings and FanDuel reject Schneiderman’s that they promote gambling, arguing that competing in fantasy sports contests is a game of skill, not chance.

In the Daily News piece, Schneiderman wrote: “That’s why more than 89 percent of one site’s players are losers, despite seemingly endless TV ads promising easy money”.

“The bank defendants are in the business of loaning money that was and continues to be used by their recipients, such as plaintiff, for placing bets through the illegal gambling schemes created and operated by FanDuel and DraftKings”. Several states that don’t have specific prohibitions are considering new regulations or laws.

“New York law expressly permits New Yorkers to pay entry fees to contest for fixed prizes”, Boies said in a conference call with reporters Friday.

DraftKings’ hiring of attorney David Boies appears to have been worth every penny for the daily fantasy sports giant.

In daily fantasy sports, participants assemble teams of pro players, with limitations such as a salary cap.

A representative of DraftKings declined to comment, as did American Express and JPMorgan Chase, one of the banks named as a defendant.

Instead, fantasy sports games have become ensnared in the web of inconsistent laws and confusing regulations governing gaming.

The minutes go on to say that DraftKings’ golf and NASCAR games were determined to be non-compliant with UIGEA and thus the company was in breach of the FSTA Paid Operator Charter.

Boies said the case will hinge on whether daily fantasy sports is a game of skill. “As I’ve said in the past, as I look at the criminal laws that apply to gambling, it is not unambiguously clear that they apply to this new industry that was never envisioned at the time those laws were drafted”. A few people object that the companies have blanketed the air waves during sports broadcasts, and those companies are thus trying to hook minors, unskilled adults, and others in a gambling-like activity. He was convincing, calculated and compelling as he tore down the AG’s argument that daily fantasy sports should be considered unlawful gambling.