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Tallying States' Activity on Fantasy Sports

By Cheryl Miller
October 01, 2016

Somewhere in New York today, a football fan will make his final picks on a roster of professional players, hoping the selections and the results from this weekend's National Football League games will deliver a payout from DraftKings, FanDuel or one of a myriad of other daily fantasy sports sites.

The fact that he ' about two-thirds of fantasy sports players are men, according to statistics from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) ' and 3.5 million other New Yorkers are plunking down anywhere between 25 cents and $10,000 to test their lineup-picking prowess was unthinkable a few months ago. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman had just declared online fantasy sports a form of illegal gambling, ordering industry giants DraftKings and FanDuel to shut down operations in a state that generated about 10% of the companies' revenues. The companies countered by suing.'

DraftKings and FanDuel founders insisted they stood on solid legal ground ' that the games they offered were ones of skill, not chance. Still, faced with enormous legal costs generated by an army of litigators and an uncertain outcome, the companies chose a second course of action. They would pursue state legislation to legitimize their operations while offering consumer protection language ' and a cut in revenues ' in return.

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