I enjoy both online poker and daily fantasy sports. Neither is perfect – there are certainly issues with each that I would like fixed (hey sites: call me, my consulting rates are competitive) – but both pastimes are a lot of fun and should be legalized and regulated across the United States. And they both constitute gambling. Thus, it vexes me that DFS, despite being the much less mature industry, has been gaining acceptance from lawmakers at an astronomically faster rate than online poker. Case in point: over the weekend, the New York legislature passed a bill that legalizes and…

Mark Davis, the owner of the Oakland Raiders, says that market research studies are being conducted by the team to gather information about relocating the team from Oakland, California to Las Vegas. At the NFL owners meeting Tuesday, Davis said that the initial reports from the studies have come back “positive” regarding the feasibility of the move. Davis wants to move the NFL team to Vegas after not being able to get a satisfactory stadium deal in Oak Town. He said, “I have given my commitment to Las Vegas and if they can get done what they’re talking about doing,…

DraftKings and FanDuel stopped offering paid daily fantasy sports contests in Idaho on Monday after an agreement with the state attorney general, the second such agreement between a state and the top sites in a week. The sites pulled out of Alabama following a similar agreement. Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden issued a press release regarding the agreement with FanDuel and DraftKings, after “three months of negotiations.” The agreement took effect after May 1, per the AG’s office. Like many states before it, Wasden came to the conclusion that DFS runs afoul of the state’s gambling laws. From the release:…

Mark Davis was beaming as he posed with fans behind a black and silver “Las Vegas Raiders” banner. He made a few jokes before delivering a $500 million commitment to a new stadium in the city for his team. Then the owner of the Raiders got serious about the prospects of getting fellow NFL owners to allow him to move from Oakland to a city the league has long shunned because it has legal sports betting. “Let’s give them an offer they can’t refuse,” Davis said. “They’re going to approve it based on that.”  Little more than an idea a…

Tennessee became the third state to regulate fantasy sports as an industry when Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill into law on Wednesday. Tennessee joins Indiana and Virginia as state governments that have passed regulations overseeing DFS this year. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey also enacted DFS regulations this year. Tennessee becomes the first state where a negative attorney opinion about the legality of daily fantasy sports was rendered moot by the legislature. AG Herbert Slatery earlier this month opined that operating DFS contests constituted illegal gambling under Tennessee law, previously. Neither DraftKings nor FanDuel had announced that it would…

A senior Democratic Energy and Commerce source has confirmed to Legal Sports Report that the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade is planning a May 11 hearing on daily fantasy sports. That committee is housed within the Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Fred Upton (R-MI). Frank Pallone (D-NJ) is the ranking Democratic member. Both Michigan and New Jersey have considered legislative answers to the daily fantasy sports question in their state legislatures. Pallone has been vocal on the issue of DFS, using the explosion of interest in the product as a platform to draw attention to New Jersey’s efforts…