DraftKings and FanDuel are not dead to New Yorkers. Not yet anyway.
The two giant daily fantasy sports companies were whacked by New York Supreme Court Justice Manuel Mendez today as he went along with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, banning New Yorkers from playing on the two DFS websites.
This is temporary as a trial will determine a more permanent outcome. Appeals are in the making of course, and new legislature could ultimately make DFS legal in New York.
I believe there is too much money on the table for New York to not legalize daily fantasy sports eventually. The state just wants to wet their beak.
This outcome isn’t shocking. A judge agreed with the attorney general. They are on the same roster, competing for the same goal. Protect the state.
I’m not even disappointed by this decision. I expect politicians to behave this way. They have a monopoly to protect and FanDuel along with DraftKings were getting a big piece of the action. Shame on these two businesses for not begging the masters to make sure the powers that be were OK with DK and FD generating millions of dollars on a weekly basis. Oh, and creating a ton of jobs along the way.
What I’m disappointed in is the reaction to this decision from people who do not play fantasy sports. It’s amazing that we have any freedoms left at all here in America from the comments I have read this morning as the New York news broke.
The comments on Pro Football Talk are about 80 percent in favor of banning DFS, and quite disgusting. They range from people applauding the New York ban because they were tired of all the FD / DK commercials to guys saying gambling is evil and should be banned outright in America.
There were a few comments that were truly off the rails as one mentally ill individual began his rant against DFS then got derailed as he mentioned Robert Kraft’s stake in DraftKings, and began professing his hate for the Patriots owner in a rambling Unabomber type message.
This individual put it simply and about as ignorantly as possible, “lingsun54 says: They’re both scams anyway. Good riddance.”
Has this guy or girl ever even played fantasy sports? I doubt it. This individual just sees two companies being banned and applauds from the sidelines, never thinking that millions of other human beings might enjoy playing on DraftKings, FanDuel, or others DFS sites. lingsun54 will now just go back to their normal day, never thinking again about the freedom that is being crushed. lingsun54 does not give one fuck about the freedoms of other people to gamble on DFS sites.
The comment about DFS being a scam is childlike. Yes, there are questions about insider info from employees, but what industry is without these kinds of occurrences? Should we ban all stock trading on account of a few Wolves of Wall Street or stop the use of 401Ks because of a few shady portfolio managers?
As the day wears on the comments will pile up on PFT and ESPN, exposing much of the U.S. population to be anti-freedom. The flippant responses about the state of New York coming down hard on DK and FD are amazing. What these commentators fail to realize is that their freedoms are linked to their fellow Americans.
What if New York wanted to ban reality TV or Starbucks coffees? These same people so happy to see DFS crushed under the hob nailed boot of the state would be appalled at how their freedom to drink an 800 calorie coffee and spend 22 hours a week watching drama filled reality TV were being attacked.
If you want to be free, you have to allow others to be free.
This is a simple rule yet so many Americans don’t get it. Gambling on DraftKings only hurts me if I lose too much money, not Joe, who is pissed at seeing so many TV spots for FanDuel.
Joe can get off his ass and stop watching so much TV if he doesn’t want to see the annoying commercials.
I can only imagine what New York must have been like in the early days. Fresh businesses were starting up. Poor immigrants with a bright idea climbing their way out of poverty through hard work and using their minds to the fullest potential. Companies built one day at a time that changed family trees.
The state was small and not very powerful back in the beginning of America. Governments were unable to stamp out creative new businesses so easily. The state didn’t have the funding or the manpower to enforce their will on startups looking to make a pile of money.
Over time though the state grew powerful. With taxes rolling in from all these new businesses, funding increased and jobs were created in every corner of the government. Now the state can dictate which businesses survive and which ones are to be destroyed.
DraftKings and FanDuel made a mistake by drawing too much attention to themselves with all the ads at the beginning of the 2015 NFL season. They were raking in millions flying under the radar. Once big brother caught wind of this billion dollar business, it was a matter of time before the government got involved.
A nation gets the government it deserves. I knew how much the politicians, especially in New York, love controlling the population. I guess I was a little naive about how much my fellow Americans want to control other folks.
This DFS fight isn’t about fantasy football and annoying commercials.
It isn’t about luck versus skill.
It isn’t even about whether fantasy sports is really just gambling.
It is about freedom.
It’s about allowing other people to do what they want as long as it does no harm to others. If you don’t impose your will on others in order to control their activities, it’s pretty damn likely that person won’t bother to try to control your lifestyle.