Never mind our TV ads, FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles told reporters Wednesday, the sharks win, and win big, proving that fantasy betting is a skill game.
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Schneiderman has sent cease-and-desist letters to the two companies, his office said in a news release issued Wednesday.
Fantasy sports players act as online owners who build a team of players in a given sport.
Schneiderman is accusing FanDuel and DraftKings of fueling gambling addiction.
“We need to define whether it is truly gambling in the sense of is it a game of skill or is it a game of chance and I think when that is legally defined I think we’ll understand where we are going with that and whether it is legal in NY”, said Assemblyman Michael Kearns.
The top prosecutor said that fantasy sports firms were running illegal gambling operations.
“We’ve got to be one step ahead of everything because we will be regulated as an industry”, Silver says. “I think if people want to gamble at their own risk and own peril then I don’t think the government should control it”. Several of the smaller fantasy companies quickly closed off their games to NY players, even though they were not ordered to do so by Schneiderman.
On the opposite side of the country, Nevada shut down daily fantasy sports sites last month, and in California, mounting state legislation could deal a similar blow, despite residents who disagree with the concept of an all-out ban.
But the cease-and-desist order from NY is the first time fantasy sports operators have been formally accused of criminal activity. A few other daily fantasy sites, including StarFantasy, already don’t operate in the state.
Both companies cited a provision in NY law they said gives them five days to comply or respond to Schneiderman’s edict. And in NY you can buy a variety of lottery tickets with prizes from ranging from $1 to $100 million because in 1966 voters and legislators changed the Constitution to allow it, as long as proceeds helped fund education. IL rules would apparently check to see if a player is in an appropriate financial position to play the game.
The controversy has raised a lot of questions about daily fantasy sports, especially on how “fair” they claim to be. Being an employee for Draft Kings, Haskell possessed a huge amount of information on the percentage of people who picked certain players. DraftKings and FanDuel contests, he wrote, are about “instant gratification” and involve no long-term strategy.
It’s now legal in most states because a series of court decisions and a 63-word provision of federal law that classify fantasy sports as a game of skill. No matter what the justification or legal loophole or legitimization, you can’t bet against the court of public opinion.
On opening day in Washington, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred outlined his league’s stance on daily fantasy sports compared to traditional sports betting.
Bank of America and American Express said they are continuing to allow customers to use their debit or credit cards to play fantasy sports while the companies monitor the situation.
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“He has unleashed an irresponsible, irrational, and illegal campaign to destroy a legitimate industry, intending to deprive hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers of the use and enjoyment of these services”, according to the lawsuit filed by Randy M. Mastro, an ex-New York City deputy mayor under Rudolph Giuliani. FanDuel employees could enter DraftKings contests and DraftKing employees could enter FanDuel contests with enhanced statistics and data, giving the employees a greater advantage to win.
