CARSON CITY, Nev. (Legal Newsline) - Pay-to-play daily fantasy sports websites operating in Nevada have been warned: Get a license, or get out.
In a notice obtained by Legal Newsline from the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Chairman A.G. Burnett announced his staff has analyzed the legality of sites like DraftKing and FanDuel over the last several months. It was determined the fantasy sports sites constitute gambling and consequently must be licensed and compliant with all laws and regulations in the state, according to the notice.
“Therefore, since offering DFS (daily fantasy sports) in Nevada is illegal without the appropriate license, all unlicensed activities must cease and desist from this date of Notice until such time as either the Nevada Revised Statues are changed or until such entities file for and obtain the requisite licenses to engage in said activity,” Burnett wrote in the notice.
Pay-to-play sites DraftKings and FanDuel have been under the microscope lately, after a lawsuit filed by Artem Genochanok in Louisiana alleged employees of the site use exclusive, inside information to win big on each other’s sites.
Legal Newsline reached out to DraftKings and FanDuel multiple times about the allegations, but neither responded.
DraftKings did however, send a press release to Legal Newsline, claiming an independent investigation proved their employee, Ethan Haskell, did not use inside information when he played on FanDuel’s website.
“Moreover, it would have been impossible for Mr. Haskell to have used such non-public information because he only gained access to internal DraftKings data a full forty minutes after the lineup was locked,” the release stated.
A twist in the case filed by Genochanok is that Louisiana is one of five states that have bans on the pay-to-play sites. It is unknown whether that fact will have an effect on the case.