Some states differentiate gambling based on skill versus chance. For example: There are amusement machines in businesses like Chuck-E-Cheese where you drop a quarter into one of several possible chutes, depending on your placement, the quarter may land on a section of the board where one additional quarter adds to the queue of quarters where rotating levers push quarters off the table into the dispenser. Place the quarter right, maybe you earn a dollar or more, do it wrong you just lost a quarter. This is legal in many states and not considered gambling because the placement of the quarter is a matter of skill, not chance or it is deemed an amusement device. By the way these machines exists because they make a profit, meaning they intake more quarters than they dispense, so a financial loss is guaranteed with any sustained play.

Now let’s compare fantasy sports to the lottery. In the lottery there is no skill, it is 100% chance. Even lottery games titled poker or blackjack, have no user decisions, there is nothing the user can do to increase or decrease the odds of winning, it is 100% predetermined and purely a matter of chance. Those who pick their own numbers for Powerball, are not using skill, there is no system, it is random odds.

However with fantasy sports (which I do not play by the way) there is some skill. You research players and teams, review statistics, review who these players and teams are playing against, and based on your skills in understanding these circumstances, match ups and data, you can make skill or knowledge based decisions. You can even elect to play against other players, not a computer, where your skill in choices competes against another persons skill in choices (not unlike buying and selling options in the stock market, it is zero sum game, to win an option someone on the other end must lose) There is still some chance in fantasy sports no doubt, many factors can not be controlled by those making bets like injuries, sidelines, weather, etc, but there is a lot more skill in fantasy sports, than in any lottery game.

The question why is the State run lottery ok, and it is a game where there is no skill, rather 100% odds based, where in contrast many fantasy sports games allow for your skill (understanding of the game and knowledge of players/teams and performance metrics) to influence the probability of the outcome.

To beat a dead horse (pun intended) how is fantasy sports different than betting on live horse racing at Les Bois? Gamblers there in theory (when it was open) research the horses, the breeders, jockeys, past performance of the horses and their competitors and make bets based on their skill and understanding of the game.

Gambling should either be legal (and regulated), or illegal. The fact of whether it is the state or a private business that profits from the games should not be the determining factor. It is hypocrisy to shut down businesses deemed harmful to citizens, when the state runs even worse enterprises.

Really, we need to abolish state governments. Some states are even passing laws about bathrooms.

“The law” AG Wasden enforces is written by criminals (Idaho Legislators) and corporations for their personal enrichment. The Nazis who slaughtered and stole from a whole continent were following “the law” too.

I would offer that successful competitors should have a property right to the income derived…