New Jersey state Senator Jim Whelan has introduced a bill that would put daily fantasy sports (DFS) sites under the regulatory thumb of the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE). That’s terrible news for an industry that’s bee free falling since news of an insider trading scandal broke last month.
The various pieces of Whelan’s regulatory act read like a daily fantasy sports CEO’s worst nightmare. For starters, DFS operators would have to submit themselves to New Jersey’s rigorous, and very expensive, gaming licensing process.
That process promises to ask a whole of questions the daily fantasy sports industry isn’t keen on answering under oath like, “What safeguards do you take to insure data integrity?”
If the bill passes into law, DFS operators would also have to limit action to players 21 years and over, who reside New Jersey. Additionally, the bill requires them to keep their servers in New Jersey.
In an interview with Legal Sports Review, Whelan defended his bill and New Jersey’s approach towards regulating online gambling:
We have a model of internet gaming that has worked well from an integrity point of view in New Jersey and that piece of business is slowly growing. So that’s the starting point for looking at if we were to regulate that, it’s one approach that we would certainly consider. I am open to better other ideas here, and open to of course trying to reach a consensus.
Anyone who has followed New Jersey’s quest to legalize sports betting, a battle they’ve taken all the way to the Supreme Court, can’t help but think there’s something more to this bill than just an interest in regulating slow growth.
New Jersey lawmakers are clearly insulted by the regulatory double standard that allows DFS sites to have monopoly on the legal US sports betting market…and they’re not afraid to do something about it.