Paxton opines against daily fantasy sports sites

I feel confident saying this will be tested in court.

While placing bets on fantasy sports sites might involve skill, there is still an element of chance that equates such leagues with illegal gambling in Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a nonbinding opinion released Tuesday.

The “odds are favorable that a court would conclude that participation in paid daily fantasy sports leagues constitutes illegal gambling,” Paxton said in the nine-page opinion. But “participation in traditional fantasy sport leagues that occurs in a private place where no person receives any economic benefit other than personal winnings and the risks of winning or losing are the same for all participants does not involve illegal gambling.”

In November, state Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, asked the attorney general to weigh in on whether fantasy sports sites such as DraftKings.com and FanDuel.com were legal in Texas. The request came days after New York’s attorney general declared such sites to be illegal gambling.

[…]

In a statement Tuesday, Crownover said she requested the opinion to clarify the law on fantasy sports sites. “It is our responsibility to try to make sure no business is profiting from illegal activity in Texas.”

As you might imagine, the sites were none too happy about this.

Daily fantasy sports site DraftKings said it intended to keep operating in Texas, disagreeing with Paxton’s interpretation of the law and his description of how the games work.

“The Texas Legislature has expressly authorized games of skill, and daily fantasy sports are a game of skill,” said a statement by Randy Mastro, counsel to DraftKings.

“The Attorney General’s prediction is predicated on a fundamental misunderstanding of [daily fantasy sports]. We intend to continue to operate openly and transparently in Texas, so that the millions of Texans who are fantasy sports fans can continue to enjoy the contests they love,” said Mastro, who disputed the description of an entry fee as a cut.

[…]

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has invested in Fantasy Labs Inc., a platform of proprietary daily fantasy sports data, tools and analytics. He slammed Paxton’s legal opinion on Twitter, calling it “a disappointment.”

“You certainly don’t represent the views of Texans,” tweeted Cuban, who is due to keynote the Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s Winter Conference in Dallas on Wednesday.

Paxton’s opinion came despite a flood of emails to his office supporting the games. His office received 18,429 emails and 339 calls, the majority of them in favor of the games, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

I would agree that there is skill involved in playing fantasy sports, at least if one wants to be any good at it, but one could also argue there’s skill involved in horse racing or playing blackjack. There’s obviously a big element of luck involved as well, so where does one draw the distinction? I have zero interest in these daily fantasy game sites, so I’m not qualified to say where that line is, but it’s clearly subjective. I look forward to the inevitable lawsuit.

One more point of interest, from the DMN last week.

When news broke that Texas lottery officials were looking into fantasy sports and casino games in other states late last year, the lottery agency said its exploratory trips were no big deal. Just a fact-finding mission to gather information for lawmakers, a spokeswoman said.

What the agency didn’t say was that for months, Texas Lottery Commission Executive Director Gary Grief had been aggressively working to get in on the billions of dollars flowing into fantasy sports. His efforts came as the games became the focus of legal questions around the country — and despite conservative state leaders’ long-standing aversion to any expansion of gambling here.

More than 400 pages of emails, obtained by The Dallas Morning News under Texas public records laws, directly contradict the agency’s contention that it was only considering traditional lottery draw and scratch-off games. The records include discussions with fantasy sports lobbyists and show that Grief wanted a contract with DraftKings, one of two companies at the center of a national controversy over the games.

He prodded his staff to quickly nail down a plan to get Texas in on the action. And when an insider betting scandal erupted in the industry, Grief embarked on a plan to bring the games — which some consider an illegal form of gambling — under the lottery commission’s umbrella.

Winston Krause, chairman of the five-member Lottery Commission, said that Grief explored the issue at the behest of a lawmaker whose name he couldn’t recall. When Gov. Greg Abbott learned from a News report that Grief and agency staffers had traveled to Delaware to investigate its sports betting operations, he ordered the commission to end its dalliance. Suddenly, Krause said, the lawmaker lost interest.

“The bottom line is, no one in that organization wants to expand the footprint of gambling in Texas. Nobody,” Krause said.

Lottery Commission spokeswoman Kelly Cripe declined repeatedly to elaborate. Grief, in a written statement, said the agency has stopped its efforts. He declined multiple requests for an interview, and the agency has challenged The News’ requests for additional documents on the matter.

Nothing at all curious about that. Who can keep track of all these legislators, anyway? Read the whole thing. This was separate from the request for Paxton’s opinion, but it’s definitely relevant. ESPN, Trail Blazers, Texas Monthly, and the Press have more.

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One Response to Paxton opines against daily fantasy sports sites

  1. Paul Kubosh says:

    This stuff drives me crazy. I am glad they are helping me protect myself from myself. Maybe they should outlaw being fat. That may be more beneficial to me.

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