A Win For Slowing Online Sports Gambling Options! An Article of Bravery By The NY Times Shares as a New York State of Appeals Court Rules The Future of Fantasy Sportsbetting Contests into DOUBT.

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Through all the hard work of advocacy and supporting the team and director, Les Bernal and others involved with “The Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation.”
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We finally have WIN and movement toward slowing down the online sports betting venue of Fantasy Football and FanDuel! So much has come from the team of Les’s within Washington D.C. of hitting legislation hard to change the way they illegally advertise, offer, and prey on those who have gambling problems. So much so that ‘The New York Times’ has done an amazing article all about it.
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I’ll leave that to Les Bernal to share the news with this announcement I got by Email Today and Share The Story from The NY Times…

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Dear Catherine, Victims of state government’s commercialized gambling scheme experienced a major legal win yesterday in NY. Here is The New York Times coverage of the court decision declaring so-called “daily fantasy sports” (DFS) for what it really is: commercialized gambling. The New York State Constitution puts the power to expand gambling into the hands of the people, requiring a statewide vote. The NY Legislature, in partnership with powerful financial interests who stood to benefit from this latest form of commercialized gambling, tried to avoid this constitutional requirement when it pushed through a bill adding DFS to its existing wealth-extraction arsenal of lottery scratch tickets, electronic Quick Draw (i.e. Keno), regional casinos, and slot machine parlors. This victory is a direct result of the hard work and talent of Attorney Neil Murray. Despite the heavy demands of his practice, Neil has sacrificed an enormous amount of his time over the last twenty years to act against the injustice, poverty, and life-changing harm caused by commercialized gambling, especially in his home state of NY. This remarkable effort is his most recent achievement. The lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law was coordinated by Stop Predatory Gambling. It was filed on behalf of four plaintiffs who had suffered personal or family harm from gambling debts resulting from commercialized gambling promoted by the state. Commercialized gambling is America’s biggest most-neglected problem. At a time when more than 60% of our citizens have less than $1000 in savings, people are on a collision course to lose more than $1 trillion of personal wealth to commercialized gambling over the next eight years. Our vision and plan is to reduce that financial harm by 50% during that span. The work of Attorney Murray moved us one step closer to achieving this goal. You can read the full decision here. All The Best, …… Les Bernal National Director Stop Predatory Gambling ____________________________________ Who We Are — – A 501c3 non-profit based in Washington, DC, we are a national social reform network of citizens and organizations from across the U.S. – We believe in improving the lives of the American people with compassion and fairness, freeing us from the impoverishment, exploitation, and fraud that commercialized gambling spreads. – We are one of the most diverse organizations in the United States, one in which conservatives and progressives work side-by-side to improve the common good. What We Stand For — – We believe everyone should have a fair opportunity to get ahead and improve their future. – We believe every person’s life has worth and that no one is expendable. – We believe that a good society depends on the values of honesty, concern for others, mutual trust, self-discipline, sacrifice, and a work ethic that connects effort and reward. – We believe no government body should depend on predatory gambling to fund its activities. If you share our beliefs, please help sustain our work by making a tax-deductible, financial gift today of $10 or mo

Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation 100 Maryland Avenue NE, Room 310  | Washington, District of Columbia 20002 (202) 567-6996 | les@stoppredatorygambling.org

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Fantasy Sports Contests Are Illegal Gambling, New York Appeals Court Rules

The court found that the law was unconstitutional, dealing a setback to sites such as FanDuel and DraftKings.  By Michael Levenson  Feb. 7, 2020, 6:23 a.m. ET

A New York State appeals court on Thursday struck down most of a law that authorized fantasy sports in the state, dealing a setback to companies like FanDuel and DraftKings in one of their most lucrative markets.

The law, signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in August 2016, declared that fantasy sports did not constitute gambling and provided for consumer safeguards, minimum standards and the registration, regulation, and taxation of daily fantasy sports providers.

In October of that year, the law was challenged by four New York residents who said they had been harmed by gambling, including one woman, Jennifer White, whose father regularly patronized off-track betting facilities in Western New York while her mother was besieged by loan sharks and creditors.

Their lawsuit argued that the law carved out an illegal exemption to the State Constitution’s prohibition on gambling, which forbids the practice except for a few exceptions, including at a limited number of horse tracks and casinos.

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Legalizing daily fantasy sports, the lawsuit argued, would require a constitutional amendment approved by New York State voters, not a simple statutory change signed by the governor.

In 2018, Acting Justice Gerald W. Connolly of Albany County Supreme Court agreed with part of the lawsuit, holding that the law, to the extent that it authorized daily fantasy sports, violated the Constitution’s ban on gambling. At the same time, the court found that the Legislature had acted properly when it exempted daily fantasy sports from the penal code.

“On Thursday, the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division delivered a stronger ruling for the law’s opponents, finding both that the law was unconstitutional and that daily fantasy sports could not be exempted from the penal code.”

The ruling was based on the court’s finding that, while daily fantasy sports require skill, they also involve a degree of chance — such as whether a player might have an injury or illness or be affected by bad weather or poor officiating.

Cornelius D. Murray, who represents the four New Yorkers who brought the lawsuit, said he was pleased with the decision.

“As of today,” he said, “the legislation purporting to legalize daily fantasy sports is unconstitutional, so the penal law prohibiting it remains on the books.”

The office of the state attorney general, Letitia James, said it was reviewing the ruling and had no further comment. The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

FanDuel said in a statement, “We expect that there will be an appeal and we’ll be able to continue to offer contests while that appeal is decided.”

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DraftKings also issued a statement saying that “the legislative action authorizing fantasy sports in New York was constitutional and in the best interests of taxpayers and fantasy sports fans.”
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Robert S. Rosborough IV, a partner at Whiteman Osterman & Hanna who specializes in appellate litigation and who has followed the case, said the final determination on the law’s constitutionality was likely to be made by the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. Until then, he said, customers will still be able to play daily fantasy sports in New York.

“The games can continue while the state appeals, but the future is certainly in flux after this ruling,” Mr. Rosborough said.

The Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association, an industry group, estimates that 59 million people played fantasy sports in the United States and Canada in 2017 — more than double the 27 million who played in 2009. Two out of three were men, their average age was 32, and each user spent an average of $653 annually on the sites.

DraftKings and FanDuel, which operate in 43 states, including New York, together accounted for almost all of the $390 million in revenue generated by daily fantasy sports in 2019, according to Chris Krafcik, a managing director at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a research and consulting firm.

New York, with its large, sports-crazed and relatively wealthy population, is easily one of the three largest daily fantasy sports markets in the United States, alongside California and Texas, Mr. Krafcik said.

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