Illinois Attorney Gen Opinion

[robby1]

Re Lisa Madigan's opinion that "short-term" fantasy contests are illegal under Illinois law, is "short term" anything less than season long or does it just mean daily-weekly?

[Chi_Town_FEW]

Getting stupid.

A FanDuel representative provided an emailed statement to Business Insider:

Chicago may be the best sports town in the country. It's a city — and Illinois is a state — that plays fantasy sports like almost no other. "The League" is even set in Illinois. So why the attorney general would tell her 13.5 million constituents they can't play fantasy sports anymore as they know it —and make no mistake, her opinion bans all forms of fantasy sports played for money— is beyond us. Hopefully, the legislature will give back to the people of Illinois the games they love. A sports town like Chicago and a sports-loving state like Illinois deserves nothing less.

[bald is beautiful]

Re Lisa Madigan's opinion that "short-term" fantasy contests are illegal under Illinois law, is "short term" anything less than season long or does it just mean daily-weekly?

The opinion is specifically addressed to daily contests.

The facts section in the opinion cite to only FanDuel and DraftKings. She even distinguishes "traditional" contests, "which operate on a season-long timetable".

[Greg Ambrosius]

Getting stupid.

A FanDuel representative provided an emailed statement to Business Insider:

Chicago may be the best sports town in the country. It's a city — and Illinois is a state — that plays fantasy sports like almost no other. "The League" is even set in Illinois. So why the attorney general would tell her 13.5 million constituents they can't play fantasy sports anymore as they know it —and make no mistake, her opinion bans all forms of fantasy sports played for money— is beyond us. Hopefully, the legislature will give back to the people of Illinois the games they love. A sports town like Chicago and a sports-loving state like Illinois deserves nothing less.

Let's just say that many of us who run season-long games were not thrilled by this response from Fanduel. I understood when the New York Attorney General gave them an opening to throw season-long under the bus, but to do it in their first response to Illinois was disappointing to say the least. It's not the way I would have gone.

It's time for the state legislatures to get busy and include regulations and consumer protections for DFS. It's as simple as that. DFS drives revenue to the state and sponsorships for their state teams (Fanduel and Draft Kings have deals with every Chicago sports team), so why fight it? Let's get smart as a nation and add DFS to the state logs that already include lotteries, bingo and casino games. But REGULATE it.

It would be easier if the federal government would do that, but that's unlikely anytime soon.