After nearly a year of discussions and public debate, the Alabama House voted this week to approve a regulated daily fantasy sports market. The bill now has to move to the Senate for final approval. The House voted 43-38 in favor of changes to existing legislation relating to fantasy sports. It was not smooth running for the legislation in the Alabama House, however. In fact, it took nearly two hours of debate before it went to the vote, with members of the House first getting to the core of the issue – whether daily fantasy sports should be considered a form of gambling or not. In addition, the sponsor of the bill was not present at the vote due to a family emergency.
In April last year, the Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange announced that fantasy sports was an illegal form of gambling, and ordered operators such as DraftKings and FanDuel to cease their services in the state immediately.
“As Attorney General, it is my duty to uphold Alabama law, including the laws against illegal gambling,” he said at the time.
“DFS operators claim that they operate legally under Alabama law; however, paid DFS contests are in fact illegal gambling under Alabama law.”
At the time, Draftkings and FanDuel obliged the Attorney General’s demand for them to cease operations, mostly for fear of legal repercussions.
AG Strange justified his ruling by saying while certain skill was involved in creating a roster of real-life athletes for fantasy sports competitions, punters had no control over their players’ performance such as if they were injured and had to miss a game.
If the Alabama Senate now votes in favor of a regulated DFS market, it would allow the state to regulate competitions and tax operators for a portion of their profits. What may sway senators to vote to pass the law is that they can have greater control over player protection.
“The world wide web is just open to everyone; I mean, you can be in Las Vegas and sitting right here in Montgomery, Alabama,” said Senate Minority Leader Quinton Ross. “I think it’s necessary to provide this extra layer of protection to those individuals who play fantasy football.”
Given the fact that the bill passed the House with a relatively small majority, it stands to reason that it also won’t be smooth sailing when it comes before the Senate.
