It seems nowadays that one cannot watch their favorite sports team without seeing an advertisement for a fairly new iteration of fantasy sports. Online daily fantasy sports, sometimes abbreviated to D.F.S, have swept the nation in recent years and have now become a powerful new addition to the world of professional sports. However, the increasing popularity in these daily fantasy games is also spiking controversy in the issue. Last year, New York state's attorney general ordered the cease of operation of the industries' two biggest companies, Draftkings and Fanduel. The attorney general claimed that these two companies were conducting illegal gambling activities. This spurred the debate on whether or not daily fantasy should be legalized or not across the country. I intend to argue that not only is daily fantasy a legal activity, but it is actually not traditional gambling and has more benefits than gambling does, as well that it is not as detrimental to people's lives as gambling. The claims recently made by the state of New York's attorney general and the meteoric rise of Draftkings and Fanduel in the past decade make this an important issue that could affect millions of sports fans.

Daily fantasy sports are a concept that has only been around for about a decade. This requires some background to help explain exactly what the industry is. Daily fantasy sports are an online game that revolves around the world of professional sports. While fantasy sports have existed for quite some time; daily fantasy sports are on the rise due to their short sessions that require little commitment. In traditional fantasy sports players will be able to select professional athletes to "play" for their team and collect points throughout the season. Players usually have to update their lineups each week to account for various real world stipulations that could affect their fantasy teams. This lasts for the entirety of the professional season. In daily fantasy all of this is packed into one week or even one day. Players can then play against each other trying to get as many points as they can based off of real world performances. These games are all harmless, until money is added into the process. Two companies Draftkings and Fanduel are the spearheads of this industry and have leagues with buy-ins ranging from 1 dollar to thousands of dollars. This is where the whole business becomes problematic as it becomes a legal and moral problem.

Daily fantasy sports are currently legal in forty-five of fifty U.S states. Two of these states, Kansas and Arizona, have made these games illegal "because these states call into doubt the legality of certain fantasy sports games on their state websites. For these five states another common theme is that they do not want any percentage of the players money put forward to not be returned. This, however, is how companies like Draftkings and Fanduel are able to be successful business ventures. This has also led to the claim made by the New York state attorney general that daily fantasy constitutes as illegal gambling. While these states see Draftkings and Fanduel as illegal gambling, it is important to note a key difference between these games and illegal gambling. The fact is that these games are not games that only rely on chance, but also on the skill of the player. The thing about fantasy sports opposed to betting is "it clearly has elements of skill far beyond merely betting whether a team will beat the spread" setting it apart (Rose 139). The idea that these are "games of skill" rather than "games of chance" is what many people use as the argument for their legality. The fact of the matter is daily fantasy sports games "are legal in the majority of states as a game of skill" and the federal recognition of skill in these games is what keeps the industry afloat (Ehrman 81). Skill successfully keeps the industry in tact because "everyone charged with enforcing the laws against gambling also knows that contests of skill are almost never illegal" (Rose 348). That being said one may think that if daily fantasy sports are legal than so are other forms of internet gambling. That is not exactly the case though.

In 2006 the United States government passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). This was a law that was designed to crack down on the ever increasing online internet gambling. Notably when the bill was passed it did not include fantasy sports. These laws were passed 10 years ago and still hold fantasy sports in the same light as it did back then. Fantasy sports have operated safely for the last 10 years since the law's enactment. There is no reason for it to change now. Companies like Fanduel and Draftkings "seem to truly believe that the UIGEA creates a safe harbor carve out for all fantasy sports" and there is no reason why it should not (Rose). The UIGEA setup specific rules and regulations for the operation of fantasy sports and according to Fanduel, they "uses exactly the same rules as any other season long fantasy sports format" which would justify their claims of being legal (Rose by Fanduel). The UIGEA has created a safe zone for daily fantasy sports to operate making it not only legal, but it makes it difficult to truly distinguish these daily fantasy sports as illegal gambling or not. 

After analyzing the legal issues that come with the operation of daily fantasy sports, the industry must be viewed as any other company and have it is affecting the world. Daily fantasy sports have opened up a new form of entertainment for sports fans all over the country. More specifically daily fantasy has become a leading form of entertainment among a specific demographic: millennials. Millennials (described as people ages 18-36) have grown up in an era where they are constantly engulfed in technology. This has made it easier for this generation to become so heavily involved in the world of daily fantasy sports, since it is exclusive to the internet and new technology. The new surge of daily fantasy sports among this age group is because "The DFS boom was created by and for millennials", a market of 80 million people (Rose 140). Millennials have not also changed fantasy sports, but they have also left an impact on traditional gambling.  It has been found that while millennials spend more time logged into slot machines in casinos than other age groups; they actually spend less money than others. When it comes to gambling and fantasy sports people are changing the way that it being carried out as their tendencies change. Daily fantasy has become a form of entertainment that better fits today's generation of people that are less into the season long commitment of regular fantasy sports. It offers a new and interesting way to play a sports fan's favorite game.  

While daily fantasy has impacted the practices of many fantasy sports players, it also leaves a mark on the world of professional sports. Fantasy sports revolve around their real life counterparts. There would be no fantasy sports without a league of players to create the teams that make up fantasy leagues. Even though fantasy sports have such a deep connection to professional leagues, in the past leagues like the NFL and NBA have tried to limit their involvement in any form of sports gambling. In the past these leagues have refrained from advocating any forms of sports betting with the fear that people would lose interest in the teams, but would become interested only in their money. In the past few years, however, teams have decided to actually team up with companies like Draftkings and Fanduel. The reason these professional leagues have turned around so quickly is because "daily fantasy sports consumption will have a steroid effect on television revenue" creating a massive source of income among professional sports (Schrotenboer). When people have a player that they picked in their fantasy team they are more likely to watch a game live rather than just a recording. People want to know what is going on with their fantasy team the second they can. The increase in viewership among live games also increases the market value of live sporting events for advertisers. It has been found that "fans consume 40% more sports content  --  across all media  --  once they start playing FanDuel" heavily increasing the amount of viewers to the realm of live sports (Schrotenboer). This creates an increase in profits for sports leagues reeling in more money that probably would not exist if it were not for daily fantasy sports. Both illegal and legal gambling affect the amount of people viewing live sports; and it usually results in increased viewers due to higher interest in the games. This has led to professional sports league commissioners feeling less inclined to limit the exposure of professional sports to daily fantasy in the past few years. NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, has even advocated for legalizing sports gambling across the board. Fantasy sports has left an overall positive impact on the business of professional sports organizations over the past few years and continues to look for ways to bring in even more revenue. 

When it comes to the people that play these various daily fantasy games it is essential that they take care of their teams and the amount of money the wager. Gambling can result in a catastrophic negative impact on the financial status of an individual. Therefore it is the responsibility of the individual to play the game with their own limitations. If people can gamble safely, and not put themselves at risk then there is no reason that they should not be allowed to gamble. In a New York Times article, author Jay Caspian Kang discusses his personal experience in the world of fantasy sports. The author admits to having a gambling addiction in his early twenties that he was able to subside by participating in smaller scale games and eventually fantasy sports. According to Kang when he plays fantasy sports his "losses in D.F.S. are not financially crippling, nor are they happening at a rate that should be cause for concern" and he is not being scammed or ruined by daily fantasy sports (Kang 1). The fact is that people are able to safely participate in these games without endangering their financial status. The responsibility of playing daily fantasy games safely ultimately comes down to the decisions of the individual. On the other hand, it is up to the companies that create these games to make sure that they are fair and safe. Late last year a Draftkings employee won a large amount of cash by playing on Fanduel. The story was that the employee was able to get his hands on information that would allow him to have ab advantage over other players. To combat this, companies like Fanduel announced "it had banned its employees from gambling on any daily fantasy games and also was banning employees of other fantasy sites from playing on FanDuel" making sure that there was no competitive advantage for any players that were also employees (Speiser). When a Draftkings employee made so much money off of Fanduel not only did it give way to this rule, but also started the investigation by the New York state attorney general, and result in the order of the companies cease of operation.

The problem people see in daily fantasy sports is whether or not it is legal, and whether it is something people should even be participating in. This means it can be easy to forget that there are people working for these companies too. While people may not be able to sympathize with the head of Fanduel, they certainly would be able to with some lower level employees. With fantasy sports growing as an industry online it requires more man power to thrive as an industry. Since fantasy sports is a part of the tech industry "many fantasy companies employ hundreds of people and compete with Silicon Valley" creating an expansive new job market (Horrow). The new thriving nature of fantasy sports has also created many smaller independent companies that advise people in their picks for their teams. The interest in daily fantasy sports has given way to thousands of new jobs and has proven to be an economic boost to the technology sector of the U.S economy. The amount of money that daily fantasy rolls in as an industry is substantial; in fact "The fantasy sports industry is estimated to bring in $3.07 billion" yearly making it economically valuable to the United States (Schneider 553) . It is also worth noting that Draftkings and Fanduel are in partner with multiple entertainment companies and they "received large injections of cash from media companies [last] year such as ESPN, TimeWarner, and Comcast" making daily fantasy a new integral part of the entertainment business (Schneider 638). If daily fantasy sports were all of a sudden classified as illegal then that would mean thousands of people would instantly lose their jobs. It would also result in the loss of two companies that are worth millions of dollars.  Shutting down the daily fantasy business would be a impractical solution to a misunderstood problem, and would simply not be in the best interest of the people or the government.

Two of the main problems that come up when discussing daily fantasy sports are the intent of the UIGEA and the type of people that excel at this game. It is commonly stated that the UIGEA did not directly address fantasy games leaving a lot of room for interpretation. People claim that "it was not the intent of Congress, to allow these daily fantasy games and to cross the threshold into gambling", yet if this were such a loosely interpreted law that allowed for these games to exist for the past decade, why would it be different now (RotoLiner). The UIGEA was designed to crack down on unlawful internet gambling and made it clear that if a game required skill then it would not be classified as gambling, and would be undoubtedly legal. However, one might question if there really is any skill required in these competitions after all. If skill were a part of a competition then it would be clear that there are some that are skillful and some that are not. Daily fantasy does in fact have both. There are people that spend hours a day creating algorithms and studying patterns of professional players to create the best lineups. Last Week Tonight host John Oliver even admitted that "it might actually involve a lot more skill than they would like you to be aware of" pertaining to the "sharks" of daily fantasy sports games (Oliver). While the fact that there are professionals at this may seem daunting to the average user, it proves that there is a level of skill that is necessary to win big. These players put a significant amount of time and effort into picking the right lineup. If they are putting so much into winning, why shouldn't they be winning more than others?

Daily fantasy sports have become a new rage among a younger audience in the past few years. It has proven to become a new economic boost as well as a fun and engaging way for people to enjoy sports. Thousands of people participate in daily fantasy, especially when professional seasons are in full swing. If daily fantasy were to be classified as illegal gambling it would cause economic ripples in the sport and entertainment industry as well as take away a fan favorite that has been around for years.

