It Depends What The Meaning Of 'Is' Is
Lawmakers and regulators need to settle on a definition of daily fantasy sports or the industry will be stuck in purgatory.
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: Florida has competing daily fantasy sports efforts; one is favorable and one unfavorable to DFS 2.0 operators.
NEWS: Division II AD talks about the impact of legal sports betting.
LOOSE ENDS: Brazilian iGaming Questions; NFL Betting Controls; Gambling Treatment Diversion Courts.
VIEWS: Will Atlantic City casinos ever be smoke-free?
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: RG messages with good intentions.
STRAY THOUGHTS: The double agony of defeat for the superfan.
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Florida Is a Major Front in the DFS Wars
Daily Fantasy Sports was a hot topic in 2023, and as anticipated, it continues to be a topic of interest in 2024.
Multiple states have already taken action against certain DFS 2.0 contests. The games in question are categorized as Pick’ Em games and share many similarities with parlays offered by sportsbooks. Some states have decided Pick’ Em games are a step too far for DFS, others have prohibited Pick’ Em games against the house, others have tweaked the rules, and others appear to be ok with the offerings.
Florida is among the most prominent states to look at DFS 2.0, but the conversation is apparently just beginning.
In September, the Florida Gaming Control Commission sent cease & desist letters to several DFS operators that effectively said all DFS contests are illegal in Florida. The problem is that DraftKings and FanDuel didn’t receive letters.
The unequal treatment didn’t escape the trio of recipients: PrizePicks, Underdog Fantasy (a newsletter sponsor), and Betr.
Florida State Sen. Joe Gruters had the same questions. Gruters sent a letter to the Florida Gaming Control Commission, asking why DraftKings and FanDuel were spared.
Gruters’ letter (as reported by the Tampa Bay Times) to the FGCC asks [bold mine]:
“The letters definitively state that ‘betting or wagering on the result of contests of skill … including fantasy sports betting, is strictly prohibited and constitutes a felony offense.’ Notably, however, the commission’s public position is less definitive. In the FAQs (frequently asked questions) on the commission’s website, the commission states that ‘wagering on fantasy sports’ is ‘probably not’ legal. I am concerned that the commission is applying an interpretation that is not supported by law and that the commission may be selectively enforcing its interpretation.”
Nor did it escape legal experts, as attorney Marc Dunbar said on LinkedIn, “… the questions being raised by Sen. Joe Gruters in Florida are very legitimate and deserve attention.”
“How is it that platforms which are operating in Florida that are not in compliance with Florida law, interpretations by Florida’s attorney general and the Florida Gaming Commission can operate with such brazen disregard?” Dunbar asked.
Now, Florida has two competing DFS bills:
HB 679 was prefiled by Rep. Jason Shoaf in early December.
SB 1568 is sponsored by State Sen. Travis Hutson.
Shoaf’s bill would legalize most forms of DFS. Hutson’s bill would prohibit against-the-house DFS contests. As I said, the DFS conversation in Florida is far from over.
NC Sports Betting a Boost to [Small] College Athletics
We often hear about the challenges of sports betting for major colleges. Schools and the NCAA are trying to navigate the new landscape and are tackling everything from student-athlete betting to match-fixing to threats.
We don’t hear much about the impact on smaller schools. North Carolina Public Radio posted a very interesting interview with Dick Christy, the Athletic Director of UNC Pembroke, a Division II school in the state.
Christy was overall positive about legal sports betting, particularly the funding UNC Pembroke and nine other schools will receive. As WUNC explained, the law calls for an annual stipend (expected to be around $300,000 per school) to the ten in-state colleges with the smallest athletic budgets.
Christy said the funding will help sustain athletic programs at the schools.
“It’s been a number of schools that have been forced into a position where they’ve tried to reduce their number of sports offerings,” Christy told WUNC. “That’s not because we don’t love athletics; that’s because there’s just not a sustainable way to fund it under the existing funding model.”
Another interesting answer was Christy’s belief that the oversight that comes with legal betting would (eventually) provide more transparency into who is betting.
“… what we've seen from some of these other states through interaction with the NCAA and their enforcement staff, it gives them an opportunity to come alongside those gaming commissions and actually patrol and monitor it more, to be able to have better access, tracking IP addresses, doing geofencing, and having an understanding of who is engaged in betting and making sure it's not somebody that's not supposed to be. So, I think it will be an opportunity to actually maybe clamp down even further and let the NCAA monitor this more closely.”
Loose Ends: Brazilian iGaming Questions; NFL Betting Controls; Gambling Treatment Diversion Courts
Vixio GamblingCompliance analyzed three key policy points to watch in the newly legalized Brazilian market. Three of the six policy points identified by Vixio are:
Will a statutory requirement for Brazilian investment partners be challenged in court?
What conditions will be applied to a transition period for current offshore operators?
Will certain types of online casino games be excluded from the Brazilian market?
NFL refs have been approached about fixing games, but according to Dean Blandino, the former head of officials for the NFL, the proper controls are in place to avoid a Tim Donaghy scandal. “The NFL has so many controls in place just to become an official,” Blandino told the Awful Announcing podcast in mid-December. “They look at all of your business associations. They look for conflicts of interest, all of that, bank accounts, everything.”
Coverage from Global Gaming Business (and h/t to them for putting this older interview on my radar).
New Jersey is in the midst of a multi-year effort to create a gambling treatment diversion court (only two states have GTDCs, Nevada and Ohio), and now advocates in Washington State are joining the GTDC conversation.
NJ Smoking Ban: You Have Your Study; I Have Mine
When it comes to smoking, the casino industry just can’t quit. Smoke-free casinos are inevitable, but several jurisdictions are holding out for as long as they can.
Case in point: New Jersey.
The Garden State was poised to prohibit smoking in casinos (or rather, rescind the exemption casinos received when indoor smoking was banned in 2006) during the lame-duck session in December. Those efforts fell apart, and now it’s back to the drawing board.
But as Play NJ’s David Danzis reports, getting a smoking ban across the finish line in 2024 is no sure bet.
Per Danzis, some speculate that New Jersey won’t move to ban smoking unless Pennsylvania does the same - thereby eliminating any competitive advantage either jurisdiction would have.
Another factor is a pair of contradicting studies. An industry-commissioned study concludes that casinos that go no-smoking will lose revenue. A separate study, based on pandemic and post-pandemic era data, downplayed the potential revenue impact.
Once again, I will post the wise words of my friend Richard Schuetz, one of the more vocal advocates for smoke-free casinos in the industry:
Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
SHAME!
The tweet below from RG advocate Jamie Salsburg is a good example of a campaign designed with the best intentions that misses the mark.
The question is, who is this ad targeting?
Or this one from Pennsylvania, which I stumbled across in a study:
Is it a “Scared Straight” appeal to recreational gamblers who may become problem gamblers? Or is it aimed at current problem gamblers? The former will ignore the message because it doesn’t apply to them. The latter will feel immense guilt because they know it’s true; they are missing out on these moments.
One of the clarion calls of the RG community is removing stigma. These ads seem to do the opposite, as they are rooted in creating guilt.
As Salsburg tweeted:
Stray Thoughts
This is something I never thought about, and now, I can never not think about it when the camera pans to fans like this - A+ tweet.
