It didn’t take long for a casino mogul to set his sights on the world of Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS).
Millions of sports fans around the nation have joined Fantasy Football leagues to put down a few bucks based upon their skill and knowledge of players.
A digitally organized version of the old office pool, DFS players take it to the next left and are willing to put their dollars at stake to prove themselves on the virtual field.
The online players cozy up to their laptops from the comfort of their arm chairs to place bets and pick the winners in their league . . . the home comfort zone has placed these players and their facilitators like DraftKings and FanDuel in the cross hairs of regulators.
Why?
They’re under scrutiny because of what they are NOT doing . . . traveling to Vegas and throwing money away at a casino.
So far, Texas and several other states have ruled that DFS is illegal . . . and they’re not done yet.
Rather than build an online competitor to DraftKings and FanDuel, Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson would rather pull from the pages of Atlas Shrugged and use the force of government to knock out the competition.
The casino mogul has vowed to “spend whatever it takes” to kill online gambling.
The owner of the Las Vegas Sands corporation has said his crusade to stop online gambling is . . . get this . . . “a moral issue.”’
The 82 year-old gambling mogul uses the old tried and true “it’s for the children” argument claiming that there are no safeguards to protect the young and vulnerable from betting their allowance online.
The mogul forgot about the primary protector of children . . . parents.
Logic, however, does not matter when a billion dollars are at stake.
In 2014, DraftKings and FanDuel reported $1.26 billion in entry fees alone . . . a number that surely increased in 2015.
DraftKings itself produced a weekly profit of around $1.9 million in 2015.
The rapidly growing pastime likely has Adelson fuming over profits that he’s not taking in his brick-and-mortar casinos.
Adelson’s viewpoint does have some backers, including the Las Vegas Review Journal, that recently published their strong opinion that DFS should be regulated.
Oh wait, that’s right . . . Adelson owns the Las Vegas Review Journal.
So scratch that . . .
Outside of Christian right groups that have been funded by Adelson (or are attempting to attract the billionaire’s funding), few support the regulation.
But thanks to the corruption of political influence and dollars, Adelson is winning at the state level.
Look for the ban on DFS to come to your state, if it’s not already there.
