Inside Asian Gaming

November 2015 inside asian gaming 35 murder of first-graders does not result in such widely desired laws as background checks for gun purchasers, it is difficult to see how average Americans could ever defeat the lobbying power of politically well- connected special interest groups. The proponents of DFS include the extremely rich and powerful sports leagues, with the sole exception of the NCAA. Even the fanatically anti-gambling NFL allows its team-owners to be directly involved with DFS operators. Closely aligned with the professional sports teams are large mass media companies, like Disney. It is easy to see why: DFS players watch athletic events to the end, even when it is a blow-out. Unlike regular sports fans, DFS participants are more interested in the performance of their individual players than whether their team wins or loses, or even whether it beats the spread. The main opponents of DFS are established legal gambling operators, particularly casinos. Nevada announced that it is taking up the battle against DFS by declaring DFS to be a form of gambling. DFS operators are taking the position that their games are contests of skill, so they could not apply for gaming licenses. Instead, they had to start excluding real-money players from the Silver State. But casino owners have much bigger things to worry about than DFS, including the lack of interest in casino gaming by Millennials. And privately owned casinos do not have a good record when it comes to keeping out newcomers. Nevada’s casinos were against both Indian gaming and Internet poker; battles which they lost badly. The other main opponents of DFS are the “anti’s”, mostly religious groups opposed to all legal gambling. The anti’s lost that battle decades ago. So, the proponents of DFS have the power to get laws passed, expressly making their activities legal. But legislation will not immediately solve their problems. A federal law could be enacted preempting state anti-gambling laws, as was done with trading in stocks and commodities. But Congress no longer passes laws. And even if it did, there would have to be provisions for states to opt in or opt out. The federal government is not going to impose the same public policy on Nevada and Utah. So the DFS operators are stuck with lobbying state by state. They could probably get a bill passed through the New York Legislature, making their operations legal in that state. But even if licensed in New York, a DFS site could not safely take players from New Jersey unless they got a similar statute passed there, or they convince the New Jersey Supreme Court that DFS was not gambling. The reason I am optimistic is that DFS, and especially its allies in the professional sports organizations and mass media companies, have the resources to fight these battles throughout the entire nation. They do not even have to win; they only have to continue standing until they reach settlements with prosecutors and other opponents. What will those settlements look like? There is little dispute that season-long fantasy sports is a contest of skill. DFS has eliminated at least one of the elements of skill: the ability of participants to make trades. The impact of chance is also much greater on daily games. For example, Gambling and the law injuries and other unforeseen events happen all the time. But over the course of an entire season, such chance occurrences have much less of an impact on which fantasy teams win or lose. I would suggest agreeing to legislation requiring that fantasy games must be based on real-world sports events taking place over at least two days. This would lessen the impact of random injuries and bring back the skill factor of allowing fantasy team owners to make trades. In the end, will DFS win? Rocky withstood repeated blows that would have killed a lesser fighter, and stayed on his feet through all 15 rounds. Still, in the end, he lost the match by a split decision. DFS and its many fans have to hope that Rocky will not be an omen for them. And they may be right. DFS may be getting hit almost every day. But it has not, and will not, throw in the towel. We are still in the early rounds. And this is only Rocky I. Let’s not forget that in Rocky II, Rocky wins, and becomes the Heavyweight Champion of the World. “Let’s not forget that in Rocky II, Rocky wins, and becomes the Heavyweight Champion of the World.”