Nevada Gaming Control Board to Fantasy Sports operators: STOP, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

[handicapme]

lol handicapdonk

You call me a donk, yet I can prove that in the last 2yrs I have made more money off of DFS then you have life time in both DFS and poker most likely. Also, unlike you, my money came from grinding out the wins, not winning $500 in a small stakes gpp donkament and thinking I'm WORLD CLASS. You call me a donk, but won't play me heads up in DFS, yet you are the biggest pro on the site? Put your money where your mouth is best of however many games you want for $50+ buyin.

[Shizzmoney]

DraftKings Asks for Cessation of WSOP Sponsorship - I guess no more 50/50 events

PocketFives reached out to WSOP officials, one of whom responded, "In light of last week's news in Nevada, DraftKings asked us to cease any sponsorship activities around the remaining few WSOP events of the year, and we complied." The WSOP Main Event has been airing on ESPN weekly with a DraftKings sponsorship. The next new episode is Sunday, so we'll have to see if DraftKings' commercials and sponsorship mentions still appear, but it looks like they won't.

http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/...orship-591554/

[Detroit]

http://espn.go.com/chalk/story/_/id/...ports-gambling

New York sends cease-and-desist notices to DraftKings, FanDuel
8m
David Purdum and Darren Rovell

New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman declared Tuesday that daily fantasy sports constitutes illegal gambling in his state and sent game operators DraftKings and FanDuel cease-and-desist notices in a significant blow to the embattled billion-dollar industry.

Schneiderman demanded DraftKings and FanDuel, the two industry giants, stop accepting "wagers" from New York residents and discontinue operations in the state.

"Our review concludes that DraftKings'/FanDuel's operations constitute illegal gambling under New York law," Schneiderman wrote in the letter, obtained by ESPN's David Purdum and Darren Rovell, and ABC News.

During their rampant growth, daily fantasy sites have pointed to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 in regard to their legality and have claimed they offer games of skill. But Schneiderman found that "each DraftKings/FanDuel wager represents a wager on a 'contest of chance' where winning or losing depends on numerous elements of chance to a 'material degree.'"

Using that criteria, Schneiderman reasons that the customers of the two largest daily fantasy sites, which have said they would award more than $3 billion combined in prizes in 2015, "are clearly placing bets on events outside their control of influence, specifically on the real game performance of professional athletes."

"Fantasy sports is a game of skill and legal under New York State law," FanDuel said in a statement. "This is a politician telling hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers they are not allowed to play a game they love and share with friends, family, coworkers and players across the country. The game has been played -- legally -- in New York for years and years, but after the Attorney General realized he could now get himself some press coverage, he decided a game that has been around for a long, long time is suddenly now not legal."

DraftKings has not responded to ESPN's request for comment.

"Our investigation has found that, unlike traditional fantasy sports, daily fantasy sports companies are engaged in illegal gambling under New York law, causing the same kinds of social and economic harms as other forms of illegal gambling, and misleading New York consumers," Schneiderman said, in a statement. "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. Today we have sent a clear message: not in New York, and not on my watch."

In October, the Nevada Gaming Control Board and the state's attorney general ruled that daily fantasy meets the definition of sports gambling and requires a license to operate within the state. Both companies immediately stopped doing business in Nevada.

But FanDuel is headquartered in New York, having just opened a new 40,000 square foot office and while DraftKings is set up in Boston, it too also has a new 21,000 square foot satellite office in Manhattan.

Both companies also want to protect the New York customer base. According to industry research firm Eilers Research, New York has the highest number of daily fantasy participants of any state.

Advertising for DraftKings and FanDuel can be prominently seen throughout New York City, including in subway stations and on street vendors. New York is also the site of some of the biggest team sponsorship deals. DraftKings has a sizeable deal with Madison Square Garden that includes on-court signage at Knicks and Rangers games, as well as a fantasy lounge. The deal also gives DraftKings the main sponsorship on the WNBA's New York Liberty jersey.

DraftKings also has deals with the New York Giants and New York Yankees, whose hospitality company Legends is an investor in the business. FanDuel has advertising deals with the Brooklyn Nets, who have the company's logos plastered on the floor by the bench and behind the players, as well as the New York Jets.

While the two daily fantasy sites thrived using UIGEA as the justification for their legality, state law takes precedent over federal law, in this case. Media investors like Fox (DraftKings), Time Warner, NBC Sports Ventures and Comcast Ventures (FanDuel) poured hundreds of millions of dollars into these companies, as did heavyweights KKR and Google Capital. ESPN accepts advertising from FanDuel and DraftKings, but does not own equity in either company.

Although the major sports have anti-gambling policies, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the NBA all took equity positions in daily fantasy. The NFL does not have a stake in any daily fantasy company, but two of its owners, Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots and Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, own an interest in DraftKings.

Both sites were virtually free from scrutiny until this fall when they flooded the TV market with advertising at the start of the football season. The scrutiny escalated when Ethan Haskell, a DraftKings employee, won $350,000 by finishing in second place in a NFL contest on FanDuel. Although a third-party investigation commissioned by DraftKings found that Haskell did not have proprietary information to pick his winning lineup, the revelation that employees could play daily fantasy for money caught many off guard, including Major League Baseball, a DraftKings investor.

Employees with both companies have since been banned from competing in games for money on other sites, but many still weren't satisfied. Over the past month, 34 lawsuits have been filed in 13 states, alleging that the games are either unfair, illegal or both. More lawsuits, 12, have been filed in New York than any other state, including the first suit which was filed Oct. 8.

Amid the pressure, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA), which represents the interests of sites like DraftKings and FanDuel, hired former acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris to help guide a program of self-regulation. That strategy seemed to fall on deaf ears, as executives for both daily fantasy giants quickly acknowledged they would be willing to accept outside regulation.

Plenty of other states have been active in figuring out the future of daily fantasy as well. A representative in Illinois last month put forth the first daily fantasy regulation bill, and officials from New Jersey and Pennsylvania each held hearings on daily fantasy sports this week. A federal grand jury has convened in Florida, according to multiple legal sources. Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana and Washington prohibit fantasy sports for money. Several additional states do not allow some forms of daily fantasy.

[handicapme]

FML. I'm moving to jersey...

[Shizzmoney]

NY has the highest percentage of DFS players. These sites are fucked.

LOL at the NY DA too. Lets Jon Corzine walk and steal investors money, but crack down on DFS b/c it's "gambling".

Which it is....so why are they still letting DK and FD run their biz from Manhattan? That's like saying you can take a sports bet in NY.....but you can do the accounting for your sports book in our state as long as you pay taxes.

[SrslySirius]

Which it is....so why are they still letting DK and FD run their biz from Manhattan?

I thought DK was based in Boston?

[DRK Star]

ESPN reported that NY is responsible for 10% of their business

[Sanlmar]

Sanlmar, we have already been through this.....

You can't just throw up your hands and say,
"The government can't light regulate, so no regulation is better."

The government needs to learn to light regulate in situations like these. No regulation is a disaster, and we have seen it time and time again. How many scandals do we have to keep enduring on unregulated sites before you admit that regulation is a necessary evil?

The government can't lightly regulate. I can see now regulation IS better.

Gotham is safe now.

[Shizzmoney]

Which it is....so why are they still letting DK and FD run their biz from Manhattan?

I thought DK was based in Boston?

DK just bought a 21000 sq foot building in Manhattan a few mths ago with the VC money they got. The ops runs out of Boston but still lol they buy a building and a few mths later DFS is banned in the state.

[Dan Druff]

DFS did this to themselves.

They let their employees access insider data, let them play and win big on other sites (very likely using that data), and allowed professional players gain unfair advantages using programs to give themselves thousands of entries and to make instantaneous lineup changes at the last second.

The average DFS tournament player has basically no shot, and it's not even a matter of skill. It's a matter of the tools you have and the information you have access to.

This really does border on outright fraud, and the industry didn't do shit to combat it.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Anyone who says "lol government" about this doesn't understand how misleading DFS ads are to the average customer.

Here is the way they should be advertising:

[Dan Druff]

[Sanlmar]

I would rather live in a country where I had the freedom to be fleeced as opposed living a life where my best interests are decided by Big Brother.

This really is the choice given our corrupt and inept legislators. You will never get light regulation.

This isn't regulation per se. This is the moral majority.

[BeerAndPoker]

This is where the fight really begins because not doing so is just going to let a bunch of other states follow behind.

Having deep pockets from backers and technically never have broken any federal laws is the difference between DFS vs. Stars, FTP, and the other rogue sites.

I mentioned in the WSOP thread this but you can bet if scandal(s) didn't come to surface that the players at the main event table would have been all patched up making a decent amount of money depending on how many days they lasted in the main event. They weren't even blasting commercials during but we still will be seeing a bunch of them moving forward.

I wonder if any of the major stations like CBS, NBC,etc... would ever pull the ads completely without any changes in federal law. The ads aren't as excessive but you still see one practically every commercial break during football games.

[Dan Druff]

I would rather live in a country where I had the freedom to be fleeced as opposed living a life where my best interests are decided by Big Brother.

This really is the choice given our corrupt and inept legislators. You will never get light regulation.

This isn't regulation per se. This is the moral majority.

It's not the moral majority.

Saying, "We're not allowing this because it's gambling" would be the moral majority.

They are actually saying, "We are not allowing this because you guys are shady as fuck and the average player is being misled about his chances to win", which is completely different.

They are using the "It's gambling, so therefore it's illegal" justification as a loophole to quickly shut them down, as it's easier to prove than the wrongdoing which has led up to this.

[sonatine]

technically never have broken any federal laws is the difference between DFS vs. Stars, FTP, and the other rogue sites.

do they use third party payment processors?


because if i was a gov entity sniffing for blood, that's where id expect to find some laws broken.

[thesparten]

Its 5 am in the morning and I just heard on the radio that the n.y. state a.g. will not allow f.s. to operate in n.y.

[lewfather]

Its 5 am in the morning and I just heard on the radio that the n.y. state a.g. will not allow f.s. to operate in n.y.

Deposit now before you get shut out, you don't want to risk it.

[garrett]

Its 5 am in the morning and I just heard on the radio that the n.y. state a.g. will not allow f.s. to operate in n.y.

So bad and also imo this kinda reads with sorta criminal tone too

https://twitter.com/AGSchneiderman

http://ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-sc...ings-demanding


"“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


Maybe a cease and desist order is just the beginning who knows, but that sounds really scary.

[simpdog]

sealswithdrafts.eu

[garrett]

I mean this is really the point you do wonder if its not smart to just all-in punt (enter as many possentries 250k NBAetc..), or think this will blow over.


The difference with this guy and that State is its the Southern District of NY who is investigating them. And thats the same people that probably handled the Pokerstars/Full Tilt cases. So, it really is different because they are the ones who might really be able to shut it all down. It just all is starting to feel like its going that way too...