Newswise — Nellie Drew, University at Buffalo sports law professor. Drew served as outside counsel for the NHL and as team attorney for the league's Buffalo Sabres in the 1990s:
"There is a chance FanDuel can still succeed, but that chance is substantially less than it was before. The injunction doesn’t mean it is over for FanDuel, but it certainly bodes very well for the Attorney General."
"I would say, more likely than not, that unless there is something in FanDuel’s and DraftKing’s arsenals that we have yet to see, they have a big worry."
"If I were counsel to the fantasy side right now I would be actively pursuing legislative alternatives, something along the lines where the state legislature could legalize them under certain conditions, in which case litigation may become somewhat irrelevant, because I don’t seem them winning this case and in the interim, they are losing major money."
"The fantasy side has a better shot becoming legal, in some capacity, by the legislature, by which they would pay taxes, for example, than they are to have success in court. And in the interim, they are losing a tremendous amount of money. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time for them, too. With the NFL and the playoffs, they are losing business at peak time."
“New Yorkers are still going to be able to play if they leave the state, much like I can go to Las Vegas, gamble, and return with my winnings. But things are going to get extremely messy. These are set up as accounts and those accounts require a residency, so there’s your problem. Even if you travel to Pennsylvania, let’s say, if your account is linked to a New York address, you won’t be able to play under that address even in a different state. So it is going to get extremely message, extremely quickly.”
“There is going to have to be ongoing regulation because the legislature cannot keep up with all the different scenarios that are bound to arise. For example, if someone goes to school in a state where it is legal and has their account under their school address, then comes home to New York and wants to play, technically that is illegal, but their account would still work. How do you regulate that? There’s the problem. Good luck regulating that. they are probably going to play anyway. How do you determine which law applies at which time. it is a horrific mess. If I was counsel for DFS I would be chasing federal legislation right now so that we don’t have 50 different states regulating this thing.”
“There is so much gray area, but the fact that New York accounts will be shut down will certainly deter a substantial number of people. There will just be certain situations that will arise that will be difficult to determine. But it is based on account address and physical location.”
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