Boies made his comments during an interview Friday on Bloomberg Television.
Advertisement
The regulations, Healey said, “work to protect students, by banning advertising on high school and college campuses and prohibiting daily fantasy sports games based on college sports”. However, the DFS industry has faced criticism for its perceived lack of consumer protection policies, which has led to a slew of putative class actions. Boies said daily fantasy sports games have been played in NY for four years without their legality being questioned.
In a filing last week in New York State Supreme Court, DraftKings alleged that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman instructed the payment processors Vantiv and PayPal to stop accepting payments from the site’s New York customers. New York, along with many others, are attempting to make the case that daily fantasy sports is gambling and therefore should be treated as such – which, unless the law of the land changes, means largely outlawing it like they do Blackjack, for example.
Companies such as FanDuel and DraftKings brought the concept of more immediate gaming and results so that fans don’t have to wait an entire sports season to learn if they have been successful with their choices. The lawyer compared daily fantasy sports with mahjong and video-game tournaments conducted with cash prizes, which he said were different from poker games because they involve random cards being dealt. However, there are plans to introduce legislation in Albany that would help to establish daily fantasy as a game of skill and resolve a few of the ambiguity surrounding the game.
According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, 51.8 million people are playing fantasy sports in the USA and Canada. “That does not happen unless the players influence the outcome”.
MA and NY both allow casinos but neither offers sports betting of the type that is permitted only in Nevada. And it’s obvious that fantasy sports – daily or otherwise – are gambling because one puts up their money with no guarantee of making it back regardless of how much one knows about sports. Statistically, this play would cost the quarterback one yard – a yard that could make the difference between someone on DraftKings or FanDuel winning or losing tens of thousands of dollars.
DraftKings and FanDuel reject Schneiderman’s that they promote gambling, arguing that competing in fantasy sports contests is a game of skill, not chance.
“Technically, if you go by the statute, what we’re doing is we’re allowing something that is illegal under IL law to continue to be done in the state and no one seems to be arrested”, Sullivan said.
The pair still live in the Scottish capital, although the site’s headquarters are in NY.
A state court previously rejected Monday requests from FanDuel and DraftKings requesting temporary restraining orders, but scheduled the hearing for next Wednesday when the injunction request from Schneiderman is to be considered.
The only relevant question for betting games is whether lawmakers have blessed them with legal status.
Shkolnik says his client Yehuda Guttman lost between $5,000 and $10,000 playing daily fantasy contests.
Advertisement
“There’s a small set of professional players who have figured out an advanced way to win the majority of the games”, Healey said.
