Attorney General Maura Healey has promised a “short term” wait until the release of her review of Draftkings, a popular fantasy sports website. “We’ve sought and received information previously from the companies, and I’m going to provide our findings and our recommendations so that the legislature and other policy makers can make some decisions,” Healey told Jim Braude and Margery Eagan Wednesday on Boston Public Radio.
After the report is released, the legislature will decide how to move forward; either with regulations or, according to Healey, a total ban of daily fantasy sports in Massachusetts. “One of the things a legislature could do,” Healey said, “ as they’ve done in other states, is ban this.”
Currently, Massachusetts has no laws that explicitly deal with the issue of daily fantasy sports in the state. Healey says that ultimately, regulation could help everyone in the game. “This is a new industry, certainly a new incarnation of fantasy sports,” she said. “There’s a lot of money involved, a lot of public interest, a lot of people are playing... I look at the state of play—clearly this is an industry that cries out for a regulatory legal framework.”
Healey, Mayor Marty Walsh, and Governor Charlie Baker have all called for regulation of Draftkings, but not everybody is on the same page. Steve Crosby, Chair of the Gaming Commission, has some reservations about regulating the industry. “I tend to be somebody who leans away from regulation,” Crosby said during a recent interview with Greater Boston. “The question is, are the same factors at play that make us regulate casinos in this business? Are there similarities? I don’t know—we haven’t thought about it yet, but it’s worth thinking it through intellectually, not just assuming that we’re going to go out and regulate a new industry.”
Healey, on the other hand, insists regulation would benefit everybody involved. “This is exactly the kind of industry where those who want to play want to make sure it is regulated,” she said. “If people are putting money down or towards something, they want to make sure they’re not playing against the house. They want to make sure that the statements they make in their advertisements about who is winning, the amount that they’re winning—are these things actually accurate? to the extent that they’re inducing people to play, I think there that there are absolutely appropriate certain basic legal and regulatory protections that would be in place that are in place in other industries.”
To hear more from Attorney General Maura Healey's interview, click on the audio link above.
