In filing for the lawsuits, DraftKings said that attorney general Eric Schneiderman was “using strong-arm tactics and defying the rule of law”.
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As many self-proclaimed fantasy sports gurus such as myself now know, daily fantasy sports are currently under the umbrella of illegal gambling in NY State.
According to the ESPN article, “N.Y”.
Mendez agreed. “They have not taken action yet to somehow enjoin the plaintiff from continuing to engage in their business here in NY”, he said. The popularity of both sites have steadily increased over the past few years as the DFS trend has spiked. With the ruling by Schneiderman, a large source of both site’s income are now at risk.
Lobbyist Griffin Finan, representing DraftKings, FanDuel and the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, speaks with South Dakota gambling regulators, Wednesday, November 18, 2015, at a meeting in Deadwood, S.D. Finan said the games are predominantly based on skill rather than chance, which makes them legal for players in the state.
FanDuel and DraftKings each say they have hundreds of thousands of customers in NY. According to the order, the games constitute illegal gambling under NY law.
According to documents the attorney general subpoenaed, DraftKings spent just $1 million on commercials with NBC Universal/Comcast in all of 2014.
Schneiderman made national headlines when he announced FanDuel, and other similar fantasy sports websites are considered illegal gambling in NY State.
“You can do it from an app on your phone, any time of day or night, drunk or sober”, says Schneiderman, who claims his move was partially motivated by concern about gambling addiction.
“If we’re going to de facto legalize sports gambling across the United States of America, we should at least do it on objective and not because two companies have somehow weasled out a way to pretend that they are not something that they clearly are”, says Oliver. Is there any way I can still play? Since then, we’ve been scaling back and we plan to continue to do so. In addition to Pennsylvania, at least three other states – Nevada, MA and New Jersey – have begun examining whether there is a need for regulations. Yahoo, which has avoided the get-rich-quick commercials that have raised Schneiderman’s ire, has not changed its operations in any notable way, even as smaller daily fantasy companies have stopped accepting players from the state.
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You go, Scott H.
