Daily Fantasy Sports No Longer Legal In New York
November 12, 2015 12:04 pmThe daily fantasy sports (DFS) industry is reeling from an insider trading scandal which, together with the vast sums of money the two main US operators, DraftKings and FanDuel, have been spending on advertising their products, has drawn a great deal of scrutiny towards the practice. As a result, the past few weeks has seen a number of states instigate their own investigations into the legality of the industry, including New York, which has now concluded that DFS betting is against the law. As New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (photo) explained in an official press release:
“Our investigation has found that, unlike traditional fantasy sports, daily fantasy sports companies are engaged in illegal gambling. Daily fantasy sports is neither victimless nor harmless, and it is clear that DraftKings and FanDuel are the leaders of a massive, multi-billion-dollar scheme intended to evade the law and fleece sports fans across the country.”
Consequently, this week DraftKings and FanDuel both received cease-and-desist letters from the attorney general, whose criticisms also included allegations of “deceptive advertising” by an industry in which, he claims, just the top 1% of players collect the majority of winnings. Following news of the ban, FanDuel and DraftKings fired back at the findings, stating disappointment over the attorney general’s “hasty action”, and lamenting his lack of understanding of daily fantasy sports as a “game of skill.”
Despite their protestations, however, New York now becomes the second state to prohibit daily fantasy sports, following in the footsteps of Nevada which did likewise on October 15th. Furthermore, the latest decision is likely to sway the decision of other US jurisdictions currently considering their own approaches to the industry, while major sports leagues sponsoring DFS platforms will also be forced to reconsider their ties with the industry. As Austin Weber wrote in the ESPN comments section recently; “They should make the commercials illegal too.”