State Sen. Rene Unterman, R-Buford, in a surprise move, introduced Senate Bill 352 to regulate online fantasy sports contests that include an entry fee and cash prize. The legislation would legalize these popular and lucrative daily fantasy sports games and makes a distinction between them and gambling— something Georgia law bans other than lottery games and coin-operated amusement machines.
S.B. 352 would require companies that have players in Georgia to register, pay an initial $50,000 registration fee and then $10,000 annually to help fund state education programs including the HOPE scholarship for college students. The bill would also have the state attorney general’s office formulate the gaming rules and regulate the industry— a curious choice, one state lawmaker tells InsiderAdvantage, since the attorney general’s office is not a regulatory body.
Unterman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “this is a game of skill, that you are actually following and researching the players and teams, versus just going in and plopping down $3 for a lottery ticket and the computer generates the numbers.” She also estimates 1.5 million people play daily fantasy sports in the Peach State.
Last September a blunt letter to the chief executive officers of FanDuel Inc. and DraftKings Inc. from the Georgia Lottery Corp. questioned the legality of their lucrative fantasy sports gambling operations in the Peach State. It asked by what “legal authority” the companies think they have to “independently operate fantasy sports games within the state of Georgia pursuant to Georgia law.”
A Sept. 23 letter written by Georgia Lottery Corp. senior vice president and general counsel Joseph J. Kim to both companies declares that “various Georgia criminal statutes appear to be implicated because fantasy sports clearly fall within the state law definition of ‘bet.’” Kim writes that under state criminal statutes “bet” means an agreement that, dependent upon chance even though accompanied by some skill, one stands to win something of value.
Kim reminded CEOs Nigel Eccles and Jason Robins, CEOs respectively of New York City-based FanDuel and Boston-based DraftKings, that “the Georgia constitution prohibits gambling generally and only allows certain games which are run by the state” (specifically, by the Georgia Lottery Corp. in order to fund the HOPE scholarship, pre-kindergarten and other educational programs).
Some time after that Lottery letter was sent, Attorney General Olens was asked to offer a legal opinion. He never did, but now the introduction of the Unterman bill again shines the spotlight on what the state’s top law enforcement officer will have to say.
