New York state legislators say they have reached an agreement on new daily fantasy sports legislation in the state.
Senator John J. Bonacic, who heads the state Senate Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering, said “we have an agreed-upon bill,” according to the New York Times. The legislation would still need to be passed by both houses of the legislature and signed by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo.
Cuomo’s office told the paper that negotiations were continuing.
Separate bills on DFS have advanced through committees in both houses of the state legislature, but the bills contained several differences.
Under the deal outlined by Bonacic, DFS companies would pay a $150,000 fee to operate in New York, or 1.5 percent of the previous year’s revenues, and turn over 15 percent of revenues to the state after prizes were awarded to players. The games would be classified as games of skill, the Times said.
New York has been the site of the most contentious battle over the legality of daily fantasy Sports. The state’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued to block the sites from operating in the state saying they are illegal under state law. His move was tied to an unprecedented advertising blitz at the start of the NFL season last year by the two biggest DFS sites, FanDuel and DraftKings.
The two sites later agreed to stop taking entries from New York while the legislator worked on a DFS bill. That deal expires June 30, however, and without legislation, will see the two sides likely back in court.
Bonacic a Hudson Valley Republican, said legislation is now within reach and could generate $3.5 million to $5 million a year for the state. Bonacic also told the Times that Cuomo’s office still needed to weigh in with “technical amendments” to the bill, but said he expects the measure to pass.
The reported deal also does not tie daily fantasy sports to the state’s racinos and land-based casinos. Earlier reports said the New York Gaming Association, which represents the state’s nine racino operators, was pressing a plan to limit operation of sites offering daily fantasy sports contests to the racinos and three commercial casinos now under construction in New York.
The association says DFS sites will hurt the state’s racinos and have called it another form of gambling, not a game of skill.
Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, the chairman of the Assembly Racing and Wagering Committee and sponsor of the Assembly’s DFS bill said that there is nothing in the legislation stopping racinos from instituting their own DFS platforms, according to published reports.
The announcement also came shortly after FanDuel—which is based in Manhattan—said it would likely have to leave the state if legislation is not passed in a letter to lawmakers.
“Without it, FanDuel will likely be forced to find a new home, as our operations, employees and industry would not be welcome in New York,” the letter said.
FanDuel employs 175 people at its Manhattan office, according to the New York Daily News.
Other Developments
Meanwhile, In Pennsylvania, the chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee says he’s planning to have his panel vote next week on legislation that would regulate fantasy sports in that state.
Earlier in the week, Doug Sherman, the Chief Counsel for the state’s Gaming Control Board appeared before the committee and outlined the board’s recommendations on how to regulate fantasy sports in Pennsylvania.
The board is recommending that the state allow Pennsylvania’s existing casinos to “offer fantasy sports contests as an amenity.”
However, Westmoreland County Republican George Dunbar, sponsor of the House bill, favors having the gaming board directly regulate fantasy sports, and not running them through casinos, according to CBS News.
Dunbar said there are more companies than just FanDuel and DraftKings “And if we run it through the casinos, those smaller companies will be essentially frozen out of the market.”
In New Jersey, a state Senate committee approved a bill to regulate daily fantasy sports.
The bill requires DFS operators to be licensed and allows Atlantic City casinos to offer fantasy sports. It requires the fantasy sports sites to pay a 9.25 percent of their yearly gross revenue in New Jersey which is the same tax rate on brick and mortar casinos.
The bill also bars fantasy-company employees and executives from playing the games they operate or sharing statistical information that the companies gather.
