INDIANAPOLIS - The odds for a law legitimizing daily fantasy sports in Indiana just got better after a bill passed out of the Senate Public Policy Committee on Wednesday.
In an effort to get out in front of the growing daily fantasy sports industry, Sen. Jon Ford, R-Terre Haute, authored a bill allowing daily fantasy sites in Indiana. The bill asserts that playing daily fantasy sports is not gambling, but a "game of skill." The daily fantasy industry has recently exploded with a deluge of commercials from industry leaders Fan Duel and Draft Kings.
"I'm sure you've seen our commercials," Scott Ward, counsel for Fan Duel, jokingly said to the Public Policy Committee on Wednesday. "That's when the conversation started taking off." Ford said one million people in Indiana play fantasy sports over the course of a year and, currently, the industry is unregulated.
"There's no laws on how old you have to be or any kind of insider-trading regulations," Ford said. "So I'm really coming at this from a consumer protection standpoint." Daily fantasy sites allow people to pick athletes from an assortment of different leagues and join games against other fantasy players from around the world. People can also create their own leagues and play against friends.
There is a cost to joining, which can range from $1 games to hundreds of dollars. Participants win their money back if they score more points than the other teams in whatever league they joined. It's similar to fantasy football pools, where prizes are awarded to .rst-, secondand third-place .nishers. But daily fantasy football games are only played one week at a time, not requiring a season-long commitment.
While football is week-to-week, the daily sites also offer basketball and baseball contests, as well as other sports, where games occur on the daily basis.
Ward said the quick turnaround from picking a team to winning is attractive when compared to season-long leagues.
With the expansion of these games the last couple of years, controversy has erupted over whether playing daily fantasy should be considered gambling. A few states, including New York and Arizona, have declared daily fantasy illegal.
Opponents say it is the same things as betting on sports games, while proponents say it takes skill to win on daily sites and there is very little chance involved.
The majority of states, including Indiana, don’t have a stance on daily fantasy.
Ford’s Senate Bill 339 would legalize daily fantasy in Indiana and put some regulations in place. It would require participants to verify they are at least 18 years old, and would prohibit employees of daily fantasy sites from participating in the games. The bill, at the behest of the NCAA, would also not allow games involving college or high school athletics.
“Our laws in Indiana are kind of a gray area right now,” Ford said. “The idea is to put it under our control so we can change it if we have to.”
Ford said going in the opposite direction and bannin gdaily fantasy was not discussed.
The bill would also allow Indiana’s casinos to create their own daily fantasy leagues. Officials from Tropicana Evansville said they are keeping an eye on the legislation as it moves forward.
The daily sites would not be taxed like casinos, since they wouldn’t be considered gambling operations. Ford said they would only have to pay a fee tofilewith the Indiana Secretary of State.
SB 339 will be up for a full vote next week.