Minnesota’s Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures, the corporate arm of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe has launched “Grand Fantasy Sports,” a DFS site that will also offer a platform for other tribes wanting to get into the online activity.
The site, which went live last week, was developed by the tribe that operates Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. It employees EZFantasy software, which was developed and launched in 2015 by Casino Solutions, which is also a tribal subsidiary.
The site won’t just be skimming DFS fans, it will also run promotions designed to attract business to the tribe’s two brick and mortar operations and provide a conduit to a new market. The DFS software will also be employed onsite at the casinos’ sports bars, which are currently being built.
“By combining its fantasy sports offering with new restaurants, Grand Casinos will be catering to a different generation of clientele, as well as give regular sports fans an exciting new entertainment experience,” a spokesman for the tribe told Legal Sports Report.
Currently Grand Fantasy is legal in 11 states, including California, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The business plan is that tribes in these states will use the platform to drive business into their own brick and mortar casinos.
Currently 40 states allow DFS, but the 11 states listed have gaming laws considered hospitable to this concept AND gaming tribes to take advantage of it. Of these states, California’s legal situation is the murkiest.
Not all tribes are welcoming to the concept, since many consider that it is a form of gambling that they rightly have a monopoly on. Many gaming tribes reflexively oppose granting any status to non-tribal interests.
The legality of DFS in Minnesota itself is somewhat open to question. Earlier this year the state legislature tried and failed to pass a bill that would have legalized and regulated the industry.
