Nevada Says DraftKings Described Itself As Gambling Site In Reddit AMA
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada says daily fantasy sports sites like DraftKings and FanDuel are gambling and are using the company's own words as evidence.
Nevada's office of the attorney general cited a three-year-old online "Ask Me Anything" interview on Reddit.com where it said DraftKings CEO Jason Robins compared his site to a casino and described the concept as a mashup between poker and fantasy sports.
Q: First of all, what's your website? Second of all, what has been your biggest setback, and finally, why in the hell did you guys do this (make the company, when there already exist so many fantasy sports leagues),
Thanks!
A: 1. Our site is http://www.draftkings.com
2. Hard to say what the biggest setback was but here are a few..raising money is extremely difficult..dozens of meetings canceled last minute.. you spend the entire night preparing for a meeting with a guy who can make you or break you, and he cancels the morning of the meeting. Thats incredibly heartbreaking and demoralizing. The other big one is when your friends or family aren't 100% behind you. One of the other guys has had a lot of issues with his personal life on this... and it comes out in stressful situations.
3. The concept is different from traditional fantasy leagues. Our concept is a mashup between poker and fantasy sports. Basically, you pick a team, deposit your wager, and if your team wins, you get the pot. Fantasy sports has a carve out from the 2006 gambling regulation because its considered a game of skill. This concept where you can basically "bet" your team will win is new and different from traditional leagues that last an entire season. [edit spelling and addition of #3]
The agency notes the remarks in a 16-page legal opinion memo issued Friday supporting the state's decision the day before ordering daily fantasy sites to get a gambling license or get out.
A transcript of the interview transcript that remains online doesn't identify Robins by name.
DraftKings and other fantasy sports sites have insisted they aren't gambling and instead skill-based games exempt under a 2006 federal law.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.
