Picking sides on the Legality of Fantasy Sports
The Fantasy Sports Debate has recently been heating up with the state of New York first banning residents from participating in DraftKings and FanDuel, and then just the other day an appellate court ruled in favor of allowing both companies to continue to operate in New York while their appeal is being heard.
At the same time Nebraska's lawmakers are making a strong push to legitimize fantasy sports as a legal game of skill, and the states of Indiana and Wisconsin are also extremely supportive of fantasy sports being legal.
Clearly this is a hot topic because this is a billion dollar plus business, however it is eerily similar to online sports gambling, which is outlawed in the United States. The biggest argument between the two is that fantasy sports contests are trying to fit in a loophole in the gambling laws that they are a game of skill.
The problem even if they can prove that fantasy sports is a game of skill, less than 1% of the fantasy sports players have the tools or skill set to win, which means this small percent of players is the one winning all the money from the 99% of other hard working Americans.
Also it seems very questionable to not call fantasy sports gambling, when a player deposits money, with the sole purpose of trying to win money, and if they lose then they lose their money. Is it wrong to say that online sports gambling is the exact
same thing?
What is even more hypocritical though, is the fact that the US Government runs their own billion dollar lotteries and Quick Pick Lotteries every day.
The current Powerball JackPot, which is set to go off on Wednesday January 13^th, is a record setting $1.3 billion dollars. The odds to win something like this is astronomical. A person actually has a better chance of becoming a billionaire, then becoming a Jackpot winner. So if a person basically has no chance to win the lottery, then why is that considered legal, when online sports gambling gives a person a 50% chance to win on any game they bet on.
The outcome can either be team A or team B wins. Why is online sports gambling seen as a stain on society, when a person has a better chance to win, than a government sponsored lottery?
Basically the real argument should be, that all of these betting devices should be legal or not legal, there should not be loopholes involved.
- Ace Sportsbook Editorial
