DraftKings said on Tuesday that it was disappointed in the “hasty action” taken by NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and vowed to “examine and vigorously pursue all legal options available” to keep daily fantasy sports available in NY.
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Eccles said his company has about 600,000 players in NY, which makes up about 10 percent of its customer base.
On Tuesday the NY state attorney general banned the two powerhouses of daily fantasy sports, FanDuel and Draft Kings, from NY saying the games were illegal gambling under state law.
Fantasy sports companies argue that their games are not gambling because they involve more skill than luck and are allowed under a 2006 federal law that exempted fantasy sports from a prohibition against processing online financial wagering. Both companies say they have large numbers of clients in NY, including business deals with the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and other professional sports that are headquartered in the state.
Schneiderman, in his announcement, said daily fantasy sports cause “the same kinds of social and economic harms as other forms of illegal gambling”.
For example, Schneiderman’s notices to FanDuel and DraftKings stressed the role of chance in their products as justification for why they were considered gambling. She says the company will challenge it.
Florida sports and gaming attorney Daniel Wallach says that by his count the sites are on shaky legal ground in about a dozen states.
“There is no other reason why anyone in their right mind would put fantasy sports as a front issue when there are literally hundreds of more important things to worry about”, wrote “cantstopper” on Reddit.
“It’s cheating”, Oscar Figuereo, a Stony Brook University freshman and consistent FanDuel player said, expressing his disdain.
DraftKings and FanDuel were, not surprisingly, furious over the decision, and in a statement from DraftKings, the company applauded legislation proposed earlier in IL that looks to regulate, rather than eliminate, daily fantasy sports. If FansPlay didn’t update their terms of service to reflect the legal change, PayPal would end its relationship with the Toronto-based company.
Daily fantasy sports has exploded in popularity in recent years, with games growing more quickly than more-established season-long fantasy sports leagues.
“After the Attorney General realized he could now get himself a few press coverage, he decided a game that has been around for a long, long time is suddenly now not legal”, the statement continued.
The Democrat would not, however, rule out any possibility of the sites being shut down in MA. The companies have insisted that their contests arent gambling because their customers engage in games that require more skill than chance, and they reiterated that argument in response to Schneidermans decision. Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana and Washington ban fantasy sports play for money. People aren’t being “fleeced” when they willingly participate in one of these daily fantasy sports sites. For decades fans have enjoyed fantasy-sports leagues in which they assemble teams that compete for a prize over a whole season, often just with a group of friends.
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New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone (D-3 District) has called for a congressional review of the industry for its exemption from gambling laws. “We are very disappointed …”
