Daily Fantasy Sports has not caught the attention of U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz and he has no plan to try an add DFS sites to his proposed ban on online gambling.
Chaffetz told the Las Vegas Review Journal that he doesn’t plan to add fantasy sports to his restore America’s Wire Act, which he has introduced in the U.S. House.
“There were already other carve-outs in place. My position has been that you just don’t unilaterally change a law,” he said. “You can’t erase it or add one without going through Congress. I’m trying to hold tight to just restore it exactly as it was previously. I’m not trying to make exceptions or adjustments to it.”
Chaffetz’s bill would rescind a Department of Justice opinion that held the Wire Act of 1961 applies only to sports and not to other forms of gambling. That allowed for state’s to regulate online gambling within their borders—though only New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware approved online gambling.
A federal law against online gaming passed in 2006, however, included exemptions for fantasy sports, though that bill was passed before the rise of daily fantasy sports.
The bill is supported by Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson, who has personally financed the effort to ban online gambling everywhere in the country.
Chaffetz acknowledged the growing controversy over online fantasy sports in recent months, as well as the growing number of state and federal Investigations into the industry. Nevada gaming regulators have ruled daily fantasy sports as sports betting and are requiring the sites to obtain state gaming licenses. New Jersey is also considering requiring the sites to be licensed, but a current bill would still label them a game of skill.
“There are a lot of outstanding questions, and there are many of us who are concerned it is truly gambling. So we will see how that plays out. Certainly Nevada is the leader in understanding gaming. So it should cause a lot of people concern if Nevada finds that it is truly gaming,” Chaffetz told the Journal.
But he said he still to leave fantasy sports gambling out of his bill while the investigations continue.
Chaffetz also attended a press conference to try and gain support for the bill, which is still before the House Judiciary Committee.
Several conservative groups including Concerned Women for America, Focus on Family and several Christian organizations turned out in supports of the bill.
The bill, however, has drawn steady opposition from those who feel it is an infringement on state’s rights as well as law enforcement which sees it as regulating gambling now going on at illegal offshore sites.
The Review Journal reported that the Coalition for Consumer and Online Protection circulated a letter from Chuck Canterbury, president of the National Fraternal Order of Police in opposition to the Chaffetz bill. He said regulations and associated safeguards and technologies work better than bans.
“We believe that its passage would put consumers at risk and undermine the efforts of law enforcement as we seek to protect our citizens from Internet-related crimes,” Canterbury wrote.
Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas said the Chaffetz bill would do nothing to halt unregulated Internet gambling in the U.S.
“(The bill) does not address the current offshore and unregulated market that exists today and is particularly dangerous because it prohibits states from authorizing and safeguarding their own citizens,” Pappas said.
