So What Did We Learn In Las Vegas?

[Fourslot40]

The entry price figures are misleading. The vast majority of winners are playing multiple entries in a contest. The contest is $2, but that just means that more shares can be owned by the same player in the $270 entry.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I know many of you are interested in the progress that the fantasy sports industry is making in the five exempt states. The FSTA has taken a lead role in working with those state legislators and some progress is being made, especially in Iowa. Peter Schoenke of Rotowire.com has taken the lead role and here's his progress report from this week's FSTA newsletter:

FantasySportsFreedom.com
We've created a grassroots website, FantasySportsFreedom.com, to encourage fantasy sports players to contact their legislators to change the law in states where the law doesn't clearly allow playing for fantasy sports for money.

Iowa
We continue to make progress in Iowa as both the House and Senate bills (HF281 and SF166) passed by large margins in committee and are now headed to a floor vote. The bill in the Senate could come to a vote as early as this week.

Washington State
The bill we proposed in Washington has been indefinitely postponed for the current session. It was our first year trying to pass a law in Washington and it quickly became clear that legislators needed to be educated about fantasy sports and daily fantasy sports and were not prepared to move forward with a bill. We faced similar issues in the first year of our efforts in other states. We plan to meet with legislators this summer to pave the way for another attempt next year.

Montana
The proposed fantasy sports bill there has been tabled indefinitely as well. This wasn't a FSTA led effort, although we were in touch with the bill's sponsor.

Arizona
There's no new news in Arizona.

[COZ]

It was our first year trying to pass a law in Washington and it quickly became clear that legislators needed to be educated about fantasy sports and daily fantasy sports and were not prepared to move forward with a bill. We faced similar issues in the first year of our efforts in other states. We plan to meet with legislators this summer to pave the way for another attempt next year.

I'm sorry....they need to be educated on something that they have already OUTLAWED? Then maybe these legislators should not have banned it to begin with WITHOUT the proper education in the first place. This is our current big government in a nutshell...instead of something just being free and legal, it is outlawed until further education. America, the land of the free, has become the land of laws until proper educating of the old and out of touch that it should be "legalized." Absolute joke that fantasy sports for money would be lumped in with gambling laws and banned in certain states, yet they have no philiosophical problem with lotteries and riverboat "gambling." Hopefully, the FSTA leads the "education" process on this. Truly maddening to our sense of "freedom."

COZ

[Greg Ambrosius]

Coz, you know why those states aren't being kind to fantasy sports, right? They are protecting their state lotteries and Indian casinos, places where luck outweighs skill in winning any money. But the states are knee deep in those areas and thus not willing to allow what their state residents really want. It takes a push from those state residents to say "this is just stupid." I mean, Washington and Arizona fight against fantasy sports and yet the Seahawks played in the Super Bowl in Arizona. The NFL has embraced fantasy sports, but apparently they can't help in some of the states where their NFL teams reside.

[LTDave]

"Heck, even WCOFF was the biggest high-stakes company in the industry, had paid prizes for 9 straight years and they had a record year for revenue in 2010 and should have had enough money to pay off football prizes. No way they would have had a low rating at that time before not paying off prizes."

ugggh WCOFF... first year they did their big high stakes fantasy game I joined after Childs recruited me... I lost $2500 in entry fees and didn't receive the $8,000 I won either obviously... still haven't really recovered from that... this is definitely an interesting topic. I hope big measures are taken to ensure players' safety regarding prize payouts because this industry could be even bigger if it were legitimized on a larger scale. Before WCOFF it honestly never occurred to me that a company could just shut down and not pay out prizes after taking my money. Big lesson there. I have faith that NFBC won't ever go down that road, but I am concerned about getting involved with a daily game site... and even then, which is most stable?