New York State Legislature Finally Puts Fantasy Sports in its Rightful Place: Illegal Gambling
The cat is finally out of the bag and is being called what it is; a cat. New York State Attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman just dealt a major blow to the multibillion-dollar Fantasy Sports industry. The two titans in the industry are DraftKings and FanDuel, two companies where senior management started their careers in online gambling companies, and were professional poker players, have now been outlawed from taking fantasy “bets” in the state of New York.
In the Summer of 1991 the most powerful men in America sports, such as NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, petitioned in front of a Senate subcommittee to stop the spread of gambling, which they claimed was encroaching on the integrityof their sports leagues. As a result the following year the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was passed that confined legal sports betting to Nevada and three other states. As the years have gone by the United States has undergone an unprecedented expansion of legalized gambling, however sports betting, which includes online gambling and the pay per head industry, have still been considered the black illegal sheep of the bunch. It is ironic, that England and much of Europe have legalized gambling, and even some of the most famous Soccer Clubs in the world, such as Real Madrid have been sponsored by huge sportsbooks.
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Fantasy sports have found a loophole, by stating that their games are not gambling because they involve more skill than luck and as a result of this cockamamie excuse they were exempted from the 2006 federal law, and were allowed tooperate as a business and accept US customers. As the years have gone by, fantasy sports have gained humongous traction in the United States and have recently spent over a $100 million dollars in marketing to bombard viewers duringkey nationally televised Football games throughout this season. They have also gone as far as having sponsorship deals with almost every NFL team, and two of the most famous and powerful owners in the NFL, Jerry Jones and Robert K.Kraft, have equity stakes in DraftKings and FanDuel.
However, now the fleece has been removed from the eyes of the governing bodies of New York, and they are finally seeing that this fantasy sports craze is nothing more than an alternative form of gambling. These companies can say allthey want about the skills involved, but sing that same song to sharp bettors, and black jack card counters! Sure skill is a factor, but it is also a factor in regular sports gambling. In other words, gambling is gambling regardless of the skills involved. Just like any casino in Las Vegas, the house always wins even in fantasy, which is why these two Fantasy Sports companies have been growing their profits at hyperbolic rates. One can argue if it should belegal or not -- I happen to think it should all be legal -- but at least now we are calling it like it is. And surprise surprise, I bet a lot of people have just realized that sports gambling hardly deserves the negative press it often gets!
It was only a matter of time before someone or some States began to see this Fantasy Sports business for what it truly was, which is a business that is based on gambling. There was only two outcomes that were going to be possible with this explosion of the Fantasy Sports games, and that was that they would begin to be outlawed, because it would be deemed as gambling, or all of sports gambling and the pay per head business would be deemed Legal in the United States, since they are a near identical product of betting on the outcome of sports and sport's athletes.
However, instead of Fantasy Sports opening the door to legalizing sports gambling, and the pay per head businesses in the United States, the State of New York is leading the charge in banning Fantasy Sports as well, and making a statement that they want Sports gambling to continue to be prohibited in the United States for many more years to come.
