Twice weekly, we’ll comb through as many articles, tweets and podcasts as we can find related to the world of sports betting and daily fantasy sports, and publish the good stuff here.
Stumble upon something you think we should include? Email [email protected].
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For decades, the NFL has publicly held an anti-gambling stance.
But as the New York Times’ Ken Belson writes, one NFL team continues to consider Sin City as a possible destination, a courtship that likely doesn’t sit well with the rest of the league’s owners.
Yet one team, the Oakland Raiders, said it was still looking for ways to move to Las Vegas, even if many of the owners gathered here for their annual meeting sent word that they considered the idea a nonstarter.
Oakland was also taking a look at San Antonio for a possible new home, but Mark Davis, the team’s owner, put Las Vegas at the top of his list.
“I think the Raiders would maximize Las Vegas,” Davis said, speaking to reporters.
Following a 114-98 home victory against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Golden State Warriors jumped from a -175 favorite to a -275 favorite at Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook to win the most regular season games in NBA history.
The Warriors play the Spurs twice—once at home, once on the road—in an otherwise manageable schedule. According to coach Steve Kerr, they’ll chase the record instead of resting for the playoffs.
Alan Boston made a rare appearance on the Chad Millman podcast this week. He ranted about the NCAA tournament committee and also previewed the Sweet 16, which got underway Thursday evening.
To highlight the $9.2 billion dollars placed in bets on the 2016 NCAA Tournament, Fortune listed a handful of celebrities who nearly lost it all due to gambling.
Charles Barkley, retired NBA player
“I went to Vegas a bunch of times and won a million dollars,” he said “Probably 10 times. But I’ve also went to Vegas and lost a million probably three times as much.”
David Milch, television writer and producer
The Hollywood Reporter ran the numbers, and said that the money he made from “NYPD Blue,” “Hill Street Blues” and other television shows had at one time given him a fortune of $100 million. Today however, he lives on an allowance of $40 a week, doled out to him by his wife.
Terrance Watanabe, former president and CEO of the Oriental Trading Company
Seven years after leaving the company, he took his personal fortune and went to Las Vegas, where he went on a year-long gambling bender that cost him $127 million. According to The Wall Street Journal, Harrah’s Entertainment, which owned the two casinos where Watanabe lost his money in 2007, earned 5.6% of its Las Vegas gambling revenue from him that year.
On Wednesday, the Maryland Senate passed a bill that could make the state become the first to let its voters determine the legality of daily fantasy sports, pending approval from the House of Delegates.
As a backup measure, the Senate also passed a bill that classifies daily gaming sites as illegal gambling. The bill would go into effect in January if Marylanders vote against daily fantasy betting’s legality.
The backup measure is intended to clarify a 2012 law that removed fantasy sports betting from the definition of gambling, but daily gaming sites have fallen into a legal gray area.
Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh released an opinion in January saying that daily fantasy betting sites are illegal, and asked lawmakers to clarify the law. He suggested it would have to be put on a ballot for voters to decide.
ESPN’s David Purdum spent the first two days of the NCAA tournament in Las Vegas, and wrote a 2500-word article on his observations.
Las Vegas Cris is part of a sports betting team that includes at least one partner and his wife, who is navigating her way through the crowds at the Strip books. “She’s this little Thai woman,” he says adoringly of his wife. “Everyone loves her.”
We don’t talk about how much he just bet or even which teams or totals he backed. It doesn’t really matter, he says.
“We’re playing so many middles and [arbitrages], sometimes I don’t even know who we need,” Las Vegas Cris says as we head to our next spot. “Don’t really want to.”
A recently passed New York bill would legalize mixed martial arts in the state. Legalized online poker and daily fantasy sports could be on the way.
Action on the M.M.A. bill came as the Assembly and the State Senate were considering legislation to legalize online poker in New York, perhaps as part of the budget agreement that is due by April 1. And there was the intriguing possibility of even more wagering via computer, after the state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democrat, announced a partial settlement on Monday with two major daily fantasy sports companies, FanDuel and DraftKings.
As part of Mr. Schneiderman’s agreement, the companies agreed to stop taking bets in the state, but such activity could resume if the Legislature acted to legalize and regulate daily fantasy sports. Sure enough, legalization seemed to have prominent supporters in both houses, including in the Senate, which endorsed addressing daily fantasy sports in its budget proposal.
On the Assembly side, J. Gary Pretlow, a Westchester County Democrat who is chairman of the Committee on Racing and Wagering, said he expected daily fantasy sports to become legal, though with new controls to protect the public.
Mr. Cuomo’s office has said he would review any bill to allow daily fantasy sports and online poker, and defended promoting activities like gambling and M.M.A. that might appeal to residents and visitors.
“For decades, New York threw up artificial barriers that only led to New Yorkers and tourists alike spending money out of state,” said Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo. “It makes no sense to actively remain uncompetitive, something this administration has worked to reverse, assessing each issue on its merits.”