Daily fantasy sports served as the centerpiece of the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas on Tuesday with a pair of sessions focusing on the fast-growing and as-yet unregulated industry.
In the first, Joe Asher of William Hill US Race & Sports Book joined Star Fantasy League COO Seth Young and attorney Daniel Wallach to discuss DFS and sports betting. Accounts of those in attendance called it a “heated” panel, with Asher going on the offensive and referencing online poker’s Black Friday as a possible outcome if daily fantasy sports remains unregulated.
Video of the session is not available, but Fantini Research conducted a one-on-one interview with Asher on Tuesday in which he explained many of his views.
Some highlights from the interview:
Of course it’s gambling. And everybody knows it’s gambling. You’re putting up something of value—cash—to win something of value—more cash—on something with an uncertain outcome. That’s sort of the classic, textbook definition of gambling.
The fact that it’s gambling doesn’t mean that it’s legal or illegal, but let’s at least acknowledge that it’s gambling. I actually accept that daily fantasy sports betting does have skill involved, just like blackjack has skill involved, just like poker has skill involved, just like traditional sports betting has skill involved. So the fact there’s skill is just an interesting fact. It doesn’t mean it’s not gambling. …
I’m all for daily fantasy sports betting. I think it should be legal, I think it should be regulated, and I think it should be taxed. Just like I think traditional sports betting should be legal, regulated and taxed. …
Certainly I think that (a possible congressional hearing on DFS) can have an impact on what happens with traditional sports betting. Because if Congress is going to open up the issue of daily fantasy sports betting, well certainly they should open up the issue of traditional sports betting as well. I mean, how can you be for one and not the other? That, to me, is illogical.
If you’re against all sports betting on moral grounds, that’s at least a consistent position, I suppose. But to be for one and not the other, it’s just an artificial line that you can’t logically support.
I don’t really view daily fantasy sports betting as competitive to traditional sports betting. If anything, I think it’s helped the traditional sports betting business, because so much focus and attention is now on gambling on sports that it logically feeds this business. …
At the beginning of the NFL season our handle was up 25 percent year over year. … if you told me some part of that was due to the proliferation of daily fantasy sports betting advertising and discussion in the media, I would say, ‘well, maybe that makes sense, too.’
Within Asher’s answer, it’s possible to glean insight into the possible legal battles ahead for daily fantasy sports. It seems unlikely that Frank Pallone, the New Jersey congressman and self-proclaimed sports betting advocate who has requested the hearing on daily fantasy, is opposed to DFS on “moral grounds.”
Instead, it seems reasonable to speculate that supporters of legalized sports betting will attempt to use daily fantasy sports’ growing popularity and support from powerful backers as a means to force a repeal of PASPA, the 1993 legislation that made state-sponsored sports betting illegal for states that did not already have it. It could present an interesting predicament for the professional sports leagues that are partnered with daily fantasy operators, as they have been the primary opponents of any proposed challenge to PASPA.
Regarding Asher’s invocation of online poker’s Black Friday, that scenario is unlikely to many observers, including Wallach.
A “Black Friday” for DFS? Unlikely, says @WALLACHLEGAL – fantasy too pervasive. Regulation far more likely outcome #G2E2015
— Legal Sports Report (@LSPReport) September 28, 2015