The company said its contests this weekend will continue as scheduled, but it will be working towards cutting off access to customers in ny as the daily fantasy powerhouse prepares to face regulators in court.
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DraftKings Inc. and FanDuel Inc. filed separate lawsuits Friday seeking to stop New York’s attorney general from shuttering the daily fantasy-sports operators in the state.
FanDuel said in a statement: “We are entitled to due process and look forward to being heard in court”.
NY is not the first state to ban the games, with Nevada having done so in October. The companies asked the court to allow them to continue business operations in NY while legal wrangling continues.
“Daily Fantasy Sports are creating the same public health and economic concerns as other forms of gambling, including addiction”, the letter writes, “and DraftKings’ [and FanDuel’s] advertisements seriously mislead ny citizens about their prospects of winning”.
NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman earlier this week ordered the two companies to stop taking money from New Yorkers and declared the games to be against the law.
Season-long fantasy sports games were given an exemption in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 – well before daily fantasy sports existed. A lot of those people probably have accounts on both, but it’s still an bad lot of people, in fact, NY represents the highest percentage of Daily Fantasy Sports players in North America, according to the WSJ.
DraftKings accused Schneiderman of abusing his authority by threatening to take action against payment processors Vantiv Inc and PayPal Holdings Inc.
Earlier this week, the state of NY banned FanDuel and DraftKings from accepting further deposits from clients in the state.
Schneiderman ruled that the contests were “games of chance” that were not permitted under state law. A few of the protesters were employees of both FanDuel, which is based in NY City, and Boston-based DraftKings. In the meantime, and despite the order from the state’s AG, the companies have continued to offer gaming options to NY residents.
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The filings come amid a protest organized by the two fantasy sites outside Schneiderman’s offices. Normally, the data is not released until after certain games are played. Revenue lost from daily fantasy sports sites could hurt them.
