Not so fast: Anti-gambling group chases after DFS approval in New York

New York started August on a positive note when it finally allowed daily fantasy sports players to indulge their favorite pastime on a legal basis—a move that ticked gambling critics across the country.

And so, consistent with the notion that you can’t please everybody, Washington, D.C.-based group Stop Predatory Gambling is going to try reversing the newly enacted law. Les Bernal, national director of the anti-gambling group, told Buffalo News that he is considering suing to block the implementation of New York’s new law.

Gambling critics accused New York of not going “by the book” in order to legalize DFS, pointing out that instead of going through a lengthy constitutional amendment process, the state Legislature merely passed a statutory change declaring fantasy sports contests to be games of skill, and therefore exempt from the existing gambling laws.

“There is no single act of New York state government that creates more inequality of opportunity than its sponsorship of predatory gambling,” Bernal said, according to the report.