Daily fantasy sports sites ordered to shut down in Nevada

[bluedigger]

Source: Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) – Nevada regulators ordered daily fantasy sports sites like DraftKings and FanDuel to shut down Thursday, saying they can't operate in the state without a gambling license. The decision comes amid growing backlash by investigators and regulators over the sites, which have grown in popularity in the past year.

Participants on the sites can compete in games involving NFL or college players, paying an entry fee that goes into a larger pool. Then they try to assemble teams that earn the most points based on real-life stats in a given period of time with a certain percentage of top finishers earning a payout. Entry fees on DraftKings range from 25 cents to more than $5,000. Some prizes top $1 million.

DraftKings and FanDuel say the sites provide games of skill and not of chance and are therefore protected by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act established in 2006, which has language protecting fantasy sports.

The games are legal in 45 states.

Read more: http://www.news3lv.com/content/news/story/Nevada-closes-Daily-fantasy-sports-sites/pspO1MMBckextaR7ErRzuQ.cspx

---

This industry needs to be scrutinized. Good for Nevada.

[oberliner]

1. It's definitely gambling

The sites should be treated accordingly.

[Kingofalldems]

2. I hope the whole racket gets shut down.

One of the reasons I no longer like football is the nonsense fantasy crap.

[Travis_0004]

11. Even if that gets shut down, fantasy football is going anywhere

The one week fantasy gambing is somewhat new, and a small chunk of the fantasy football market.

If they were banned, the commercials would go away, but that fantasy football is here to stay.

[former9thward]

20. You hate when people are having fun.

What a life you live...

[Kingofalldems]

24. From the guy who is certain O'Reilly lives in NYC.

[former9thward]

38. Hey King keep your stalking threads straight.

That thread was about Hannity.

[Kingofalldems]

40. No difference really.

Stalking my ass---you replied to me in this thread.

Got that wrong too.

[former9thward]

41. When I reply to posts it is because of the post.

I don't pay attention to the poster. You however knew I had posted in the Hannity thread. I wonder how that could have happened??? Nah, I know...

[Kingofalldems]

42. Are you saying I look you up?

That's a fucking untruth. Do not give a shit about you but do find your defense of republicans interesting, being that this is DU.

[former9thward]

44. If you find a topic or poster disagreeable

you always call it "defense of republicans" or "right wing talking points".

[Kingofalldems]

45. Call it like I see it-don't like it? TS.

[oberliner]

26. Agreed

It is especially harmful to compulsive gamblers or potential ones.

And open to rampant corruption as has been recently demonstrated.

[Blue_Tires]

35. +1000

[Codeine]

3. What exactly is the progressive argument

against gambling?

[jberryhill]

5. It's a gateway...

...to investing on Wall Street or running a bank.

[awoke_in_2003]

14. DUzy. nt

[former9thward]

21. Another poster who hate people having fun.

[jberryhill]

29. Present company excepted

No, I hate *other people* having fun.

[bluedigger]

8. It's about admitting it, and regulating the industry.

Charles E. Pierce weighed in on it yesterday, if you are interested. From It’s Time to Stop Being Stupid About Sports Gambling:

But even my patience began to run out as soon as the daily fantasy industry erupted and, suddenly, there were more commercials for DraftKings or FanDuel1 on my television set than there were ads for boner pills or appearances by Flo the Insurance Lady. Somebody was pitching too hard, and my internal Grifter Detection System, honed to a fine tolerance by years covering the state legislature in Massachusetts, went sailing into the red zone. Win millions! Behind the high-pressure tactics and the high-end sophistication of the relentless ad campaign was the unmistakable glow of the cheap carny midway, the faint call of the bozo over the water tank, and the smell of old and decaying cotton candy.

At its bottom, I thought, this was still somebody offering something for nothing. And now it was turning into an industry valued at over $2.5 billion, exempt from a 2006 federal anti-Internet-gambling statute by a carefully carved loophole. (Pro tip: It’s gambling.) The tawdry carnival tactics were being energized by the unregulated momentum of modern American capitalism, which owes as much to the rigged wheel as it does to anything else. What is called a sucker bet on the sawdust of the midway is called insider trading on the polished floors of the Wall Street trading houses, but the essential dynamic is still the same. This will not come to a good end, I thought. Gamblers began dancing in my head, their knives bright under the lights.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/its-time-to-stop-being-stupid-about-sports-gambling/

[Botany]

4. About time!

If these groups are paying out what they say they are paying out then they
have to be taking in much more ...... I enjoy football but these forms of
"fantasy league football" are a scam but this time the NFL, the networks,
and the team owners are in on the fleecing. Hey, you know football so
draft your own "teams" and if you lost this week you can make it up by
playing heavy and smart next week.

[jberryhill]

6. I'm not clear on how these things work, but...

...what if I had a good hunch that something really bad was going to happen to a key player just before the game?

Like, if I thought he was going to fall down some stairs or something.

[Jim Lane]

17. These short-term fantasy bets would be a bad way to play that hunch.

Suppose you "guess" that Quarterback Al is about to fall down some stairs. For your fantasy lineup, you pick Quarterback Bill, and you have an edge over the people who picked Al, but you have no edge over the people who chose Quarterback Carl.

The right way to play your, uh, hunch if you're in Nevada is to use one of the time-honored betting methods. You go to a casino that's licensed, regulated, and taxed by the state, and you bet against Al's team -- betting on the outcome of a real game, not a fantasy.

Of course, there are drawbacks to betting on the real team that's opposing Al's team. A key player on the team you're betting on might have had a little chat with someone who explained the advantages of a subpar performance. Nothing involving stairs -- strictly financial advantages. In that case you'll be screwed. But, arguably, you'll deserve it.

[KatyMan]

37. Sounds like a different idea on "winning"

Team A scored 5 touchdowns but your receiver on team B had 100 yards receiving so you win?

[Jim Lane]

39. Different indeed. They're usually based on individual players' performances

I don't know exactly how DraftKings works but I think it's similar to the season-long fantasy football leagues except that, with DraftKings, your team roster can change completely from week to week. Either way, you prepare a lineup for your "team" -- it's not really a team, that's why this is fantasy, your lineup might include players from several different teams as long as they're all on your fantasy roster. You might have, for example, a quarterback, a wide receiver, a tight end, and a running back, who in real life play for four different teams playing this Sunday in four different cities (or two of them might even be on opposing real-life teams). Real fantasy leagues generally consider more than four positions but I don't want to type them all out. The fantasy league has a formula for converting each player's individual performance into points on a common scale. A wide receiver's total for the day might be multiplier A times the number of yards on receptions plus multiplier B times the number of touchdowns minus multiplier C times the number of fumbles. In any given week, your team's performance is based on adding up the points for all the players that were in your lineup that week.

In the example you give, the question about Team A's touchdowns would be how they were scored. If all were rushing touchdowns by a particular running back, then the points go to whichever fantasy team had that running back in its lineup that week. If Team A used two different running backs, the total of five touchdowns would be irrelevant for fantasy purposes; what would count would be which player scored each one. Credit for the five touchdowns might be divided between two different fantasy teams.

[Baclava]

7. Don't fall for it. The bookies and mob and state regulators aren't getting a take = "Shut it down!"

Like that

It's called Fantasy for a reason fer chrissakes

[bluedigger]

9. You think it's healthy for a 2.5 Billion dollar industry to be unregulated?

Laissez faire!

[Baclava]

10. "Wah - we wish we would have thought of this!" ... Shut down all the state lotteries too.

Like that

[bluedigger]

12. Or the more traditional palms were greased to avoid oversight.

Like that.

[Baclava]

15. It's not 'Sports Gambling'...

It's you against some other dumbass and his 'team'.

Ur betting fantasy points on fantasy players from a multitude of fantasy line-ups against some schmoe's other fantasy line-up.

Game outcomes or scores don't factor in at all.

[bluedigger]

16. You're missing the point.

It's gambling. It needs to regulated. Sports just happens to be it's pitch. And this has nothing to do with you and ex-college roommate, his BIL, and a couple guys at work in a fantasy league, even if you put some bucks in the pot for the winner. I was in the DU fantasy league for several years myself, where we just played for fun, lucky for me. It's about a 2.5 billion dollar industry with no oversight. Someone has to make sure everything is fair. Tough shit if that cuts into the house's bottom line.

[Baclava]

22. They are pulling out of Nevada. The corporations want their monopoly on Vegas gambling

Wonder how many people were bribed in the process. Eh, it's just money.

[rocktivity]

13. Well, it IS sports gambling, even if the sports are getting a piece of the action!

CUE THE VONAGE THEME!


rocktivity

[SwankyXomb]

32. Some sports are

since the NBA owns a piece of FanDuel, and MLB, Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys), and Tom Kraft (New England Patriots) are all DraftKings investors.

[dembotoz]

18. makes pete rose look clean

the insider betting should have been a wake up call

shut it the hell down

[FrodosPet]

25. Yes! Because time and again, prohibition has been so successful...

... at positively modifying human behavior.

The 1920s were a time of peaceful tranquility and sobriety, until those crooked anti-prohibitionists came along.

And look how well it is working against the reefers. I bet you don't know ANYBODY smoking the reefers, amiright?

[oberliner]

27. Regulation has

This is gambling and should be treated as such.

[LanternWaste]

34. Prohibitions against driving against traffic on a one-way street is simply restraining the freedom

Prohibitions against driving against traffic on a one-way street is simply restraining the freedom of the irrational, and will never work...

Removing all traffic lights and stops will again return us to peaceful tranquility and sobriety. And I bet we don't know ANYBODY driving on the right side of the road.

[christx30]

43. Traffic laws are there to protect people's physical safety.

The online sports books are things that people do for fun and maybe (but probably not) profit. It's something between the owner and his customers.
So, are you trying to protect people from themselves by banning/regulating this kind of stuff? People can't be trusted to decide what's best for themselves? That's the kind of thinking the other side uses for their laws.

[svpadgham]

19. Here's how you know it's gambling

The NCAA does not allow their student athletes to take part in monetized fantasy sports leagues because they realize it is gambling.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. Maybe Not The Best Example

For all we know, the NCAA just doesn't want any of its athletes making a dime.

I wouldn't attribute too much nobility to the motives of the NCAA.

[oberliner]

28. It is clearly gambling

You can lose thousands of dollars or more in a day based on what happens in a football game.

[whatthehey]

30. Gambling or not is a grey area

It's easy to prove that a dedicated fan would be able to assemble a better make-believe team than your average schlub pretty repeatedly. Therefore they are right in that there is a skill component. However there is no active participation that can affect yards/scores etc, and any superstar can have a bad day or an injury, therefore there is a random chance component. The former is legal (or I couldn't win prizes playing trivia) the latter is not (or every bar would have slot machines like they do in the UK).

One interesting thought would be why we cannot use this precedent to establish "Fantasy Jockey", which would still have the knowledge component but essentially legalize internet OTB.

[Z_California]

31. Nevada and New Jersey seem to be taking the lead

in protecting us from the evils of one day fantasy sports games.

I'm sure it's because they're concerned about our welfare.

[oasis]

33. Nevada casinos hate anything that eats into their profits.

In the 1980's they contributed heavily to the anti-lottery campaign in California.

The people of California fought back, defeated the Vegas casinos, the horse race industry, and the church by overwhelmingly supporting the lottery initiative.

[closeupready]

36. As with prostitution or medicinal marijuana, I personally have no problem with gambling

on these fantasy sites, but as we know from online poker scandals of the past few years, the potential for crookedness in online gaming is huge.

Over and over again, naïve players ask, "It's successful as is, and they are making lots of money legitimately. Why would they risk it?"

But with greed as a behavioral factor, the question is almost always 'if we can cheat without getting caught, why wouldn't we?'