The state of Illinois could expand its gambling industry by adding online daily fantasy sports (DFS) following the introduction of a new bill focused on DFS.
The bill, which is to make online daily fantasy sports legal and would regulate them as part of Illinois’ sports betting offerings, has already been officially introduced in the General Assembly. However, the bill has faced some opponents who claim that the addition of online DFS betting would have a negative effect on the other forms of gambling that are currently allowed in the state.
The online DFS betting bill would be also considered by the Illinois Gaming Board, which has supervising authority on the matter to date.
The newly-introduced bill has been intended to replace an advisory opinion made by the Attorney General Lisa Madigan back in 2015. According to Ms. Madigan, betting on daily fantasy sports was not legal under the local gambling law. Now, the state General Assembly is expected to take the new bill under consideration, but the fate of the new piece of legislation in yet unclear, especially considering the negative opinions it had previously faced.
As mentioned above, the new DFS bill proposed in Illinois would be taking care for the protection of under-aged individuals. If successfully passed at the General Assembly stage, the bill would impose a minimum age of 21 on daily fantasy sports betting. What is more, the employees of fantasy contest providers would be prohibited from playing under the new bill, with the latter also requiring for an independent audit to be made every year in order to make sure that operators are running their services in compliance with the bill’s requirements.
The chief sponsor of the bill – the Representative Michael Zalewski, D-Riverside, commented on the new piece of legislation, saying that the regulation of the daily fantasy sports betting was especially aimed at protecting local customers from eventual effects related to gambling activities. According to Mr. Zalewski, the daily fantasy sports were forced to operate in something he called “a regulatory vacuum”. The new bill’s chief sponsor said that the process had been going on for a couple of years now, with some websites operating freely on the market.
Also, according to the bill’s sponsor, an additional revenue could be generated following the addition of some online daily fantasy sports legislation. Rep. Zalewski shared that the taxation on the DFS betting in Illinois could contribute with potential revenue that could be used for schools and other services offered within the community, or whatever activities are considered as appropriate by the local legislature. He estimated the untapped tax revenue that could be brought in by the online daily fantasy sports legislation as enough to fill in the $14 billion shortage registered by the state of Illinois to date.
- Author
Daniel Williams
