After the recent closure of online poker sites in the US, a lot of fantasy sports sites were flooded with questions on the legality of their existence in the country. Surprisingly, the answer to all those questions is a big resounding yes. Fantasy sports can be played legally with money in the US, and there has been government legislation specifically allowing the operations of fantasy sports. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which was designed to prevent fraud and other issues to happen with regards to online gambling, has a clause within the bill that states fantasy sports are not games of chance but games of skill, essentially eliminating any doubt about the legality of fantasy sports. So if you are looking to bet legally, you should start fantasy betting now. However, what the players should exercise is caution on the types of fantasy betting games they play.
Almost all fantasy games out there are legal, but only a few cross the line into gambling. The difference between a legal and illegal fantasy game is how the teams are picked. A legit fantasy sports contest is solely based on statistics and not the outcome of the game as mentioned in the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Other games such as "Pick ‘em" and "Pool" shouldn't actually get advertised as fantasy-type games because the outcome of a game or competition has a direct impact on who wins. Even if these types of games are widely popular online and offline, they are illegal to play online in the US because when it is broken down to its fundamental form, people are betting money on a team's outcome. This is actually considered as gambling.
Given that league statistics are the most important element that makes fantasy betting unique from other forms of illegal gambling, there are still a few other rules that make this game legal.
• All prizes offered to winning players are established and made known before the beginning of the contest, and the value of these prizes are not determined by the number of participants or the amount of any fees paid by those participants.
• All winning outcomes reflect the relative knowledge and skill of the participants and are determined predominantly by accumulated statistical results of the performance of athletes in multiple real-world sporting events.
• No winning outcome is based solely on a single performance of an individual athlete in any single real-world sporting event.
One other issue about the closure of the poker sites was how they were hiding their profits and forcing banks or tricking them into taking payments from them. If you have ever tried to buy chips at a poker site, you just know how hard it was. Since fantasy betting is legal, they don't have to hide behind all the smoke and mirrors just like what online poker did. The only concern for a fantasy sports player in this regards the need to claim any prizes on their taxes worth over $600. However, many fantasy sports companies already include a tax form with prizes worth over $600, so there is no confusion when it comes to that time of year.
Almost all fantasy games out there are legal, but only a few cross the line into gambling. The difference between a legal and illegal fantasy game is how the teams are picked. A legit fantasy sports contest is solely based on statistics and not the outcome of the game as mentioned in the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Other games such as "Pick ‘em" and "Pool" shouldn't actually get advertised as fantasy-type games because the outcome of a game or competition has a direct impact on who wins. Even if these types of games are widely popular online and offline, they are illegal to play online in the US because when it is broken down to its fundamental form, people are betting money on a team's outcome. This is actually considered as gambling.
Given that league statistics are the most important element that makes fantasy betting unique from other forms of illegal gambling, there are still a few other rules that make this game legal.
• All prizes offered to winning players are established and made known before the beginning of the contest, and the value of these prizes are not determined by the number of participants or the amount of any fees paid by those participants.
• All winning outcomes reflect the relative knowledge and skill of the participants and are determined predominantly by accumulated statistical results of the performance of athletes in multiple real-world sporting events.
• No winning outcome is based solely on a single performance of an individual athlete in any single real-world sporting event.
One other issue about the closure of the poker sites was how they were hiding their profits and forcing banks or tricking them into taking payments from them. If you have ever tried to buy chips at a poker site, you just know how hard it was. Since fantasy betting is legal, they don't have to hide behind all the smoke and mirrors just like what online poker did. The only concern for a fantasy sports player in this regards the need to claim any prizes on their taxes worth over $600. However, many fantasy sports companies already include a tax form with prizes worth over $600, so there is no confusion when it comes to that time of year.
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