Commentary: Legislators must say no to daily fantasy sports gambling – MyStatesman.com

The Texas Legislature is considering several bills that would legitimize daily fantasy sports gambling in Texas as legal, skill-based games in direct contradiction of an opinion issued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last year that deemed the practice to be illegal gambling.

The members of Stop Daily Fantasy Gambling agree with Paxton. We will aggressively oppose all efforts to promote the unlicensed and unregulated daily fantasy sports gambling industry in Texas.

Online daily fantasy sports gambling has its roots in the casual office pools and rotisserie-style fantasy sports leagues long played among friends for fun and bragging rights. But the games the daily fantasy gambling operators want legislators to consider are quite a different animal. They are operated online by a relatively new, largely unregulated corporate industry that has been plagued by scandal in other states.

In an online daily fantasy sports contest, a bettor attempts to win money by simulating sports team ownership or management. After paying an entry fee wager to the website, they create their team from a menu of professional or amateur athletes, and then compile points based on the statistical performances of individual players. As with other forms of gambling, fantasy sports bettors can wager every day on multiple contests such as baseball, basketball, football, hockey or soccer. Money is awarded to the bettors who assembled the top teams in the online games. Losers forfeit their entry fees. The website operator profits by taking a cut of the total proceeds.

All this occurs in an environment where high-volume players using computer scripts and special software submit thousands of lineups at once, taking unfair advantage of new players and those with less experience. So much for friendly games among neighbors and friends; this is a cutthroat business where serious bettors stand to win big and losers often never have a chance. There are billions of dollars at stake, and relying on these companies, which stand to gain immense profits from these wagers, to self-regulate is not the responsible policy approach.

Many states across the nation are struggling with the question of whether and how to allow online daily fantasy sports gambling amid an aggressive legislative push by the big companies that run the games. Within the past few weeks, the Kentucky Legislature gave a thumbs-down to a bill seeking to re-establish a legal footing for paid-entry fantasy sports. Last year, similar legislation failed in Illinois after it was found that a major fantasy sports company had tried to exert inappropriate influence on the legislative process. Indeed, scandals linked to companies operating these games and their activities have surfaced in a number of states, including Rhode Island, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, New York, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada and Washington state.

In my own home state of Texas, the attorney general has already clarified existing state law and deemed daily fantasy sports gambling to be illegal. Yet major gambling industry companies like FanDuel and DraftKings are trying to persuade legislators to give them special treatment, allowing them to circumvent the gambling laws of the state.

The Texas Legislature and other legislatures around the country have an obligation to protect citizens from being exploited by an industry that purports to be a sporting event or game of skill but in fact is a new virtual form of gambling with betting identical to online poker and online horse races.

Legislators must say no to any legislation that would allow for a loophole to the legalization of daily fantasy sports gambling.

Grimes is executive director of Stop Daily Fantasy Gambling, a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization dedicated to stopping the proliferation of illegal gambling.

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Commentary: Legislators must say no to daily fantasy sports gambling - MyStatesman.com