Texas joins daily fantasy sports legislation parade

Texas has joined the parade of US states looking to regulate daily fantasy sports activity in 2017.

On Wednesday, State Rep. Richard Peña Raymond made good on last year’s vow to introduce legislation that would formally authorize DFS activity in the Lone Star state by classifying it as a game of skill.

HB 1457 would allow a “fantasy sports contest operator” to award cash prizes “based on the relative knowledge and skill of the contest participants and based predominantly on accumulated statistical results” of the actual athletes on the field.

HB 1457 would not allow fantasy contests that depended on scores, point spreads or “any single performance of an individual athlete in a single professional or amateur sports competition,” as well as any contest based on live pari-mutuel racing.