
I am interested in this topic because a lot of my friends play fantasy sports and are very invested in it. They have been persuading me to play it with them, but I have not given in because I am not sure that I want to risk my money. I have played the free versions of fantasy sports and have done well which makes me want to try leagues that wager money. If I am as successful as I was in the free version then I could potentially make a profit. If I do decide to play in the future, it could be illegal to play certain fantasy leagues in South Carolina. I am persuaded to play fantasy sports soon in case they become banned in the near future. I want to find out why daily fantasy sports would be considered illegal and why it is only recently becoming a big issue. I have heard some people talk about how fantasy sports are not a form of gambling because it involves skill instead of relying on pure chance. I also want to research why some fantasy cites have been banned and others have not. 


This article explains how fantasy sports could be violating certain gambling laws. It gives a brief overview of what fantasy sports are and then defines a few federal laws that could make all fantasy sports illegal. The author continues to list out each state's view on fantasy sports since this decision is mostly left up to the state to decide. 

The author concludes, "Fantasy sports leagues violate federal and state gambling laws" (Davidson 228). The article started off by giving the laws without saying anything else about fantasy sports at all. It later continues to explain how these laws make fantasy sports illegal and that it should be banned until it is considered gambling. 

The author of this article, Nicole Davidson, knows about the topic because she workds for the San Diego Law Review. Her work was also viewed by many of her peers and many professors from the University of Sand Diego School of Law. A citation is at the bottom of the page for every law and person that she uses in the work. 


The general claim of this article is that "sports betting is here to stay, whatever federal or state laws are passed" (Rose 349). The article states that a large group of people are saying fantasy sports are illegal because of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The opposite party argues that the choice of language such as bet and wager do not include fantasy sports because they involve knowledge of the game. 

The most interesting part of this article is how the author attacks the language of laws that supposedly make daily fantasy sports illegal. It explains how fantasy sports are not gambling of wagering because they involve skill. The user's skill comes into play when predicting which players are going to perform on any given week.

The author, Nelson Rose, had attended panels discussing this topic for six months before writing this article. Big name companies such as FanDuel were there defending themselves from becoming illegal. Rose has gained recognition as one of the world's leading experts on gambling law and has written many books about online gambling specifically.


The last source addresses the background of fantasy sports and the effects on current players. It explains how a few guys drew from a pile of baseball cards to get a team and whoever's players preformed the best, then that person won the game. Davis also describes how he interviewed a group of people in a league and they said that they had become closer because of fantasy sports. 

This article goes in a completely different direction than most of the others that I have found so far. Instead of trying to prove fantasy sports are legal or not, it describes how the game got started and that it isn't always about the money for everyone. This was made clear when he went as far to say that "males formed friendly alliances within fantasy leagues" (Davis 260).

Davis has a Chancellor's Research Fellow position where he researches the sociology of physical activity and psychology of sport and exercise. His work is also made more credible by having almost three pages of citations at the end. This article was also thought to be credible by other people researching this topic because many other works reference him. 

