Missouri Fantasy Sports Bill Heads for the Senate
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- Category: Gambling Industry
- Created: Monday, 11 April 2016 16:05
Fantasy Sports has gained in popularity in the last decade and in fact has paid out over $3 billion in fantasy sports winning in the last year and over $250 million in entry fees. Missouri residents; however, are currently not allowed to play contests for prizes and fans of fantasy sports in Missouri are eagerly awaiting on whether or not the bill allowing them to legally take part in fantasy sports will be accepted.
The state House has just passed a bill that would regulate the fantasy sports industry and would require fantasy sports websites operating in Missouri to pan an annual $5,000 fee as well limit the laying for those under 18 years of age and not allow employees of fantasy sports sites to play with insider knowledge.
This bill is known as HB 1941 and is currently on its way to the Senate for a vote.
Fantasy Sports is currently legal in Indiana, Virginia and Kansas and in over 20 states, the industry is battling it out to make it legal. In addition they are currently trying five states trying to legalize sports betting which include New Jersey and New York.
Over 50 million Americans participate in Fantasy Sports but in recent years, the industry has come under attack in part due to a scandal involving DraftKings employee who had won $350,000 playing at FanDuel with possible internal data compromising the league’s integrity.
In fact, some states like Nevada have been looking on whether Fantasy Sports is legal and Nevada regulators have ruled that it is gambling and ordered the two largest operators (DraftKings and FanDuel) to cease their operation in Nevada until they had obtained the proper licenses. Since then, both companies have left the state of Nevada and have received a cease order from Lisa Madigan, the Illinois attorney general.
Missouri will now become another battle field like Iowa and New York where the Fantasy Sports industry is hoping to make ground in their fight to become legal.
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