Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has signed a bill making daily fantasy sports sites legal in the state three years after the state’s attorney general declared DFS illegal in the state.
The bill would require fantasy sports operators with more than $10 million in national gross revenue to pay an $85,000 annual fee to the state. Other operators would pay a $1,000 annual fee.
DFS operators stopped taking customers in the state in 2016 after the attorney general opinion.
Neither DraftKings nor FanDuel could offer a timeline for a return to Alabama, but both said they planned to re-enter the state’s market.
“We are excited to bring FanDuel Daily Fantasy Sports to the great people of Alabama,” read a statement from FanDuel. “We would like to thank Rep. Kyle South, who fought tirelessly to bring fantasy sports back to Alabama. We also are grateful for the support from Speaker McCutcheon, Sen. Del Marsh, and Sen. Tom Whatley. We are working hard to bring our fantasy sports products to Alabama residents and we will have more details very soon.”
In another matter, a bill that would have legalized fantasy sports gaming in North Carolina was voted down in the House Judiciary committee.
The bill would define fantasy sports as not gambling under state law. The Lottery Commission would become the state’s Gaming Commission, with authority to regulate fantasy games and charge registration fees to online sites that provide the gaming forums.
The bill easily passed the House Commerce committee in May, but a similar proposal failed in 2018. The current bill will stay in committee for now.
