The bill next heads to a Senate committee for consideration. Almost two-thirds of Americans disagree with the idea betting on sports is wrong morally.
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“We want to make sure that when money is involved, you don’t have identity theft and you don’t have underage players and people taken advantage of”, Gray said. “I see this more as a game of skill”. Brandon Peck filed the class-action suit in federal court of Portland against the two brands, DraftKings and FanDuel, claiming the companies offered services illegally and the amounts wagered and lost were “wrongfully lost”.
Negron pitched his bill as a way to prevent the state from trying to declare fantasy sports games illegal based on current state laws.
There’s a statistical tie on whether daily fantasy sports are legal – 47 percent say yes and 46 percent say no. That’s within the 3.6 percentage point margin of error for the survey of 1,000 United States adults, conducted September 14-28 by landline and cell phone. On its website, FanDuel.com, the company contends that fantasy sports received a specific exemption from the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. She said she was only doing her job and there were no harm done against the sports sites.
Sen. Jon Ford, R-Terre Haute, the bill’s sponsor, said he hasn’t heard any opposition.
Controversy erupted last fall amid allegations employees of daily fantasy sports companies were using insider information to win large sums at rival sites.
Officials in states such as New York, Illinois and Texas have said they consider online daily fantasy contests as a type of gambling – a contention that the fast-growing industry disputes.
Daily fantasy contests change the nature of the game, McConnell said.
Legislatures in several states are considering laws to clarify whether fantasy sports betting is illegal or should be regulated.
Derek Hein, a lobbyist for DraftKings, said fantasy sports require a degree of skill that should exclude them from the definition of gambling.
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Support for legal sports betting is higher among men (50 percent) than women (30 percent), LifeWay Research found. The committee is considering a measure to pave the way for sites such as DraftKings and FanDuel.
