(TRENTON) – The Assembly Tourism and Gaming Committee under the leadership of Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Essex) will meet Monday to discuss daily fantasy sports sites to get a better understanding of their operations in New Jersey, their direct impact on the state’s gaming industry and whether regulation through legislation is necessary.
The committee will meet at 10 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 9 in Committee Room 12 on the 4th Floor of the State House Annex in Trenton.
Confirmed speakers include representatives from daily fantasy football websites DraftKings and FanDuel, Dennis Drazin, of the NJ Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, and Greg Bordelon, a professor at Monmouth University.
DraftKings and FanDuel are daily fantasy sports websites. Each valued at more than $1 billion, the sites have operated under an exemption to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which outlawed online poker and sports betting. That law included an exception for fantasy sports, which were treated not as a form of gambling but rather as games of skill. Using that loophole, companies like FanDuel and DraftKings, which didn’t exist when the gaming law was passed, now operate in every state except Arizona, Louisiana, Iowa, Montana and Washington. In October, the Justice Department and the FBI began a preliminary probe into the legality of these businesses.