Progress in Minnesota for daily fantasy sports bills

Measures designed to lightly regulate daily fantasy sports are continuing to make progress in the Minnesota House and Senate, where bills SF3007 and HF2540 have survived several committees, albeit with some amendments, and looked likely to be approved following Pubic Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee discussion Monday.

“We have almost a million Minnesotans that are playing fantasy sports right now,” said Rep. Tim Sanders in addressing the committee. “They are not breaking any law. They are not doing anything that the law says they can’t do.” He added that fantasy sports are based on education, research, strategic skill and decision making, and are therefore games predominantly of skill and not gambling.

The proposals are being opposed by the Minnesota Family Council, whose spokesman John Helberger commented:

“If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck,” in claiming that the games are an extension of gambling and illegal.

The Citizens Against Gambling Expansion action group is also unhappy, with spokesman Jake Grassel observing:

“For every skilled player who wins, there have to be a lot of unskilled players who are taking a chance and losing.”