The Fantasy Sports Trade Association has "launched an advertising campaign targeting" California Assemblyman Marc Levine, who labeled daily fantasy sports as "illegal gambling and voted against authorizing it in law," according to Jeremy White of the SACRAMENTO BEE. Levine has argued DFS is "unequivocally a form of gambling the Legislature has no authority to rein in." With a key Assembly floor vote looming this week, the FSTA "is running online ads and radio spots in the Bay Area explicitly denouncing Levine." FSTA spokesperson Steve Maviglio said that the ad "will be running on three Bay Area stations over the course of two weeks." Levine said, "They realize that I’m right and they’re operating illegally in California." In another sign of the DFS industry's "increasing engagement with California politics, DraftKings reported on Tuesday giving $5,000 to a ballot measure campaign committee" controlled by Assemblyman Adam Gray, "who is carrying the bill allowing a regulated fantasy sports industry to operate in California" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 1/27). Meanwhile, THE HILL's David McCabe reported cited recent filings as showing that DraftKings "spent $80,000 in the last three months of the year on outside lobbying help," while FanDuel spent $50,000 on services from from DC-based law firm Steptoe & Johnson. It was the "first full quarter in which the firms lobbied" in DC (THEHILL.com, 1/22).
WE NEED RULES: An L.A. TIMES editorial stated the smart approach to DFS is to "regulate the leagues, ideally within the context of a comprehensive approach to online gaming." The argument for "setting up a safer environment for fantasy sports games applies in spades to online poker." The editorial: "It's time for the Legislature to stand up to the competing gambling interest groups and adopt safeguards that apply across the online gaming boards" (L.A. TIMES, 1/23).
