New US bill seeks to tax games of chance

A senator is pushing a bill that would require companies offering games of chance in the United States to pay a 23 percent tax.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) opened the 115th Congress with a proposal that defines “chance” and includes special tax treatment for gaming operators, a group that may include Nevada sportsbooks and daily fantasy companies, ESPN reported.

Introduced last Jan. 3, the 132-page bill—titled “Fair Tax Act of 2017”—has special provisions for gaming “sponsors” and also defines “chance” as those that includes bets or wagers involving “(1) a random or unpredictable event or (2) an event over which neither the gaming sponsor nor the person purchasing the chance has control over the outcome.”

Moran’s bill, however, does not specify if the so-called “special tax treatment” will apply to daily fantasy sports operators or to Nevada sportsbooks. Operators like FanDuel and DraftKings have been consistent in defining  daily fantasy sports games as skill-based, even though “[n]o court has directly addressed whether fantasy sports contests are games of skill,” according to a 2014 letter to FanDuel released during litigation between the company and the New York Attorney General.