New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has targeted the daily fantasy sports industry claiming that efforts to rebrand sports betting is “plainly illegal” under New York law. The interest in daily fantasy sports picked up this summer when DraftKings and FanDuel launched significant advertising campaigns while an “insider trading” episode brought attention to employees betting on rival’s websites. University of Notre Dame Law Professor Ed Edmonds, who specializes in sports law, says...
"Perhaps the real issue here is that the industry is largely unregulated, but, more importantly, states are not getting part of the revenue. New York was one of the first states in the modern lottery era to establish via state constitutional amendment a legal lottery system to raise money for education. Is Mr. Schneiderman’s real concern the impact on his state lottery instead of his concerns raised in his legal filings as noted by Joe Drape in the New York Times that FanDuel and Draft Kings maintain “close ties to the gambling industry, collected user fees from contestants in states where the sites are barred, and raised false hopes of winning when nearly 90 percent of players lost money?” Much of my research supports the proposition that winning on the sites is difficult for the casual bettor. The biggest winners bet heavily based upon computer-modeling that arrives at the best combination of players not typically chosen by bettors without access to the data. However, many writers have noted the astronomically poor odds on playing most state-approved lottery games, including Powerball. It appears that the odds of winning many of the New York Lottery gamos are also a longshot. Another industry hurt by state lotteries is the horse racing industry, another area with strong New York interests. So, this leaves us with the New York AG and his counterparts in other states fighting against the major sports leagues and the significant number of fans who want to bet legally on games. The fan interest in this activity is enormous. Perhaps, regulation needs to be implemented, but in the long run I think that the fantasy sports industry will find a way to stay in business."
Edmonds is available at 574-631-5916 or [email protected]
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