{"id":44651,"date":"2017-02-03T15:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T23:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=44651"},"modified":"2017-02-03T12:19:15","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T20:19:15","slug":"texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Daily Fantasy Sports Bills Seek to Challenge State AG’s Stance on Legality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas received three daily fantasy sports (DFS)\u00a0bills in quick succession this week, each aimed at legalizing and developing a framework of regulation for the contests.<\/p>\n

\"Texas
Texas Attorney General\u00a0Ken Paxton sparked a lawsuit when he opined that daily fantasy sports\u00a0were illegal under state law. A triple-pronged legislative approach from Representative Richard Raymond hopes to challenge that opinion. (Image: Eric Gay\/Associated Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The state missed out on the DFS legislation trend that appeared on the dockets of legislatures<\/a>\u00a0across the country in 2016 due to the fact that its legislative session is biennial, but it appears to be making up for lost time.<\/p>\n

Each of the three bills is sponsored by State Representative Richard Raymond (D-Laredo). His co-sponsors vary, as does the language of each bill, although they also chime in on many matters.<\/p>\n

\n

As a body of legislation, the three bills address the key preoccupations of legislators across the US, from player protections and operator registration fees, to the segregation of player funds. Curiously, though, one bill ignores the latter somewhat crucial point altogether. Likewise, two bills would define DFS as games of skill, while one wouldn\u2019t bother.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Representative Raymond is clearly hedging his bets.<\/p>\n

The Letter of the Law<\/b><\/h2>\n

Raymond said he hoped his triple-pronged approach would \u201cclarify a confusing and ambiguous law and affirm that fantasy sports are legal in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told the Texas Fantasy Sports Alliance that \u201cthe government should not be limiting the freedom of Texans to participate in fantasy sports contests, which are clearly a game of skill, not chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas became a legal battleground for DFS when, in January 2016, Texas AG Ken Paxton deemed the contests to be illegal games of chance under Texas law.<\/p>\n

He said it was \u201cbeyond reasonable dispute that daily fantasy leagues involve an element of chance regarding how a selected player will perform on game day.”<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cPaid daily fantasy sports operators claim they can legally operate as an unregulated house, but none of their arguments square with existing Texas law,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cSimply put, it is prohibited gambling in Texas if you bet on the performance of a participant in a sporting event and the house takes a cut,\u201d Paxton concluded.<\/p>\n

DraftKings Sues Texas AG<\/b><\/h2>\n

FanDuel quickly pulled out of the Texas market, but DraftKings, which had a sponsorship deal with the Dallas Cowboys, dug its heels in and sued Paxton.<\/p>\n

DraftKings<\/a> claimed his opinion had jeopardized its relationship with the Cowboys and that many Texans had closed their accounts as a result of his statement. The company\u2019s lawyers asked the judge to clarify that DFS was not illegal in Texas.<\/p>\n

Paxton said the case should be dismissed because his sovereign immunity protected him from lawsuits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis lawsuit reflects a corporation\u2019s attempt to protect its preferred business model: profiting from paid online daily fantasy sports in Texas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The case is ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas received three daily fantasy sports (DFS)\u00a0bills in quick succession this week, each aimed at legalizing and developing a framework of regulation for the contests. The state missed out on the DFS legislation trend that appeared on the dockets of legislatures\u00a0across the country in 2016 due to the fact that its legislative session is biennial, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":44656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13,16],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTexas Daily Fantasy Sports Bills Seek to Challenge State AG's Stance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Texas daily fantasy sports legislation is seeking to affirm that the online contests are legal, although AG Ken Paxton has other ideas.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texas Daily Fantasy Sports Bills Seek to Challenge State AG's Stance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Texas daily fantasy sports legislation is seeking to affirm that the online contests are legal, although AG Ken Paxton has other ideas.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-03T23:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-03T20:19:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/0824paxton.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"790\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"478\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/\",\"name\":\"Texas Daily Fantasy Sports Bills Seek to Challenge State AG's Stance\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/0824paxton.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-03T23:00:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-03T20:19:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Texas daily fantasy sports legislation is seeking to affirm that the online contests are legal, although AG Ken Paxton has other ideas.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/0824paxton.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/0824paxton.jpg\",\"width\":790,\"height\":478,\"caption\":\"Texas AG Ken Paxton sparked a lawsuit in Texas when he opined that DFS was illegal under state law. A triple-pronged legislative approach from Representative Richard Raymond hopes to challenge that opinion. (Image: Dallas Morning News)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Legislation\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/legislation\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Texas Daily Fantasy Sports Bills Seek to Challenge State AG’s Stance on Legality\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\",\"name\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Texas Daily Fantasy Sports Bills Seek to Challenge State AG's Stance","description":"Texas daily fantasy sports legislation is seeking to affirm that the online contests are legal, although AG Ken Paxton has other ideas.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Texas Daily Fantasy Sports Bills Seek to Challenge State AG's Stance","og_description":"Texas daily fantasy sports legislation is seeking to affirm that the online contests are legal, although AG Ken Paxton has other ideas.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2017-02-03T23:00:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-02-03T20:19:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":790,"height":478,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/0824paxton.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Casino.org Staff Writer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Casino.org Staff Writer","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/","name":"Texas Daily Fantasy Sports Bills Seek to Challenge State AG's Stance","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/0824paxton.jpg","datePublished":"2017-02-03T23:00:52+00:00","dateModified":"2017-02-03T20:19:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77"},"description":"Texas daily fantasy sports legislation is seeking to affirm that the online contests are legal, although AG Ken Paxton has other ideas.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/0824paxton.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/0824paxton.jpg","width":790,"height":478,"caption":"Texas AG Ken Paxton sparked a lawsuit in Texas when he opined that DFS was illegal under state law. A triple-pronged legislative approach from Representative Richard Raymond hopes to challenge that opinion. (Image: Dallas Morning News)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/texas-daily-fantasy-sports-bills-seek-to-challenge-ags-stance-on-legality\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Legislation","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/legislation\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Texas Daily Fantasy Sports Bills Seek to Challenge State AG’s Stance on Legality"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77","name":"Casino.org Staff Writer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Casino.org Staff Writer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}