Illinois lawmakers are debating a measure that would regulate daily fantasy sports play for the state’s 12.8 million residents. The new measure (HB 4323) passed out of committee last week and is supported by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA).
If passed, HB 4323 would allow Illinois residents 21 or older to participate in online daily fantasy sports contests, but there are a few twists.
For example, player pools would classed by experience level to avoid feeding frenzies by DFS sharks. Players would also be limited to only $3,000 worth of deposits in their accounts every three months.
Daily fantasy sports operators would be licensed by the State and would pay on a sliding scale based on site revenue. Taxes for operators doing more than $15 million in revenue would be taxed at 22 percent with proceeds being used to fund education initiatives in the state.
While these limitations are hardly ideal for the daily fantasy sports industry, most operators are on board with anything that keeps their business afloat. Stacie Stern, general manager of Head2Head Sports told the Journal-Online (a Chicago news site):
This bill establishes legal certainty for the fantasy contest providers, and those who participate in this massively popular leisure activity. More than a dozen fantasy sports related companies are based here in Illinois — they’re contest operators, statistics providers, marketing professionals and other related categories. Passing commonsense regulation will allow the fantasy sports industry to keep creating jobs in Illinois/
One group that’s definitely not on board with the new regulations is the existing Illinois gaming industry. They’ve maintained that daily fantasy sports are nothing more than legalized sports betting and should not be allowed in the Land of Lincoln.