Texas has become one of the states which have filed some gambling bills literally in the last minute when they could propose new pieces of legislation for 2017. This time it is the daily fantasy sports (DFS) that have been looking to find legal clarity in the state, so the state Senator Lois Kolkhorst used the last chance for filing a bill and introduced S 1970.
The new piece of legislation is focused on making daily fantasy sports legal in the state, and providing regulatory framework for them. What is more, the bill S 1970 is to offer customer protection measures which are pretty similar as the ones included in other laws enacted in a number of state a year earlier.
DFS Issues in Texas
The new bill introduced by Senator Kolkhorst is not the first attempt made for daily fantasy sports legislation. Back in February, another bill focused on DFS has been introduced to the Senate by Richard Peña Raymond.
However, until now, the state of Texas has never put the DFS regulation on its agenda, especially considering the fact that the state’s legislative body was not in session in 2016. The fact that the legislature of Texas meets every two years only, the stakes are even higher, as the DFS legislation could be put off until 2019 in case that the current effort turns out to be unsuccessful.
Daily fantasy sports, on the other hand, have been one of the hottest issues on the territory of the US lately. There have been DFS bills filed in about half the US states, but the importance of such piece of legislation in Texas has been considered as extremely high. The situation is even more complex due to the planned merger of DraftKings and FanDuel – two of the leading providers of online fantasy sports. It is not clear what the two companies are to do about the state, due to the fact that currently only DraftKings takes Texas customers.
The bill filed by Senator Kolkhorst comes as the most recent attempt to get approval for the industry in the state, at a time when three different bills have been introduced since the beginning of the year. So, it now remains to be seen if the state will mark success on the way of daily fantasy sports legislation or the issue will remain closed for two more years.
- Author
Daniel Williams
