OLYMPIA — The variety of laws related to fantasy sports games in Washington state and across the country were discussed before a Senate committee in Washington state Friday, where lawmakers also discussed a bill that proposes legalizing casual, season-long fantasy leagues.
The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee held a work session on the issue ahead of the next legislative session, which begins Jan. 11.
Most states have no laws that specifically address fantasy sports but do have gambling laws that might dictate whether they’re legal. Many permit betting on contests that depend more on skill than chance. Others, like New York and Washington, ban betting on games materially affected by chance, and still others prohibit betting if chance is a factor at all, no matter how minor. In Florida and Arizona, it’s illegal to wager on contests of chance or skill. Earlier this month, the New York attorney general announced that daily fantasy sports betting sites FanDuel and DraftKings are illegal gambling operations in his state and had previously announced that he was investigating insider trading at daily fantasy sites.
Two states, Maryland and Kansas, have expressly permitted fantasy sports betting.
A bill proposed by Republican Sen. Pam Roach would define fantasy sports leagues as games of skill in Washington state, which would exempt them from any classification of gambling.
“Here we have hundreds of thousands of people in the state of Washington who participate in something that is a fun, trash talk game,” Roach told the committee Friday. “It’s just a fun thing.”
Her bill would legalize participation in leagues that had no more than 50 people and where each participant pays no more than $50. Participants would need to be over age 18 and would need to participate in at least half of the sport season.
“My concept is this: let’s go ahead and carve out what is not gambling,” Roach said, noting that there will likely be a larger discussion about the daily betting issue. “My bill just pulls the normal average person out of that mess.”
Two other Republican senators, Doug Ericksen and Brian Dansel, have already said they will introduce a bill next year that would allow Washington residents to participate in any fantasy league, including the daily fantasy games advertised on television.
Former Attorney General Rob McKenna also testified before the committee. McKenna, who is serving as outside counsel for Draft Kings, FanDuel and the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, said that, with more than 40 million people across the country participating in some way, “fantasy sports have become our new national pastime.”
McKenna said he sees little difference between daily, weekly or season-long game, calling all a game of skill.
“The skills required for all three are the same,” he said.
Several states say they are reviewing the legality of daily fantasy sports or whether to regulate them, given their popularity and the vast sums at stake, and the industry says it would welcome what FanDuel’s chief executive called “sensible regulation.”
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