Today, a bill is anticipated to be put in the hopper of the Illinois Legislature to regulate daily fantasy sports. The brainchild of Rep. 
Mike Zalewski (D), “it would create standards for auditing daily fantasy companies that want to do business in the state and prohibit their employees from playing in contests on other sites, among other restrictions,” according to the Wall Street Journal. “There’s a lack of clarity on whether [DFS] is gambling or game of skill and from what I can tell it’s its own thing,” Zalewski told the paper.
The DFS industry has been hewing to a party line that it’s open to regulation and the reaction to Zalewski’s bill was no different. “We welcome the opportunity to work with Rep. Zalewski and lawmakers in Illinois to safeguard consumers, introduce best practices that the entire fantasy industry can adhere to, and ensuring that sports fans across Illinois can continue to play fantasy sports,” FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles said. (Now if only Zalewski could deter those unrelenting FanDuel TV commercials.)
DraftKings raised FanDuel’s ante, calling the Zalewski bill “a reasonable and measured step toward oversight of fantasy sports.” This isn’t Zalewski’s first rodeo. He tried to introduce what he called “a shell bill,” a precursor to his new effort, last April but the clock ran out on the legislative session. The Ethan Haskell scandal spurred him back into action. (Did he, perchance, see the quote that Haskell is to DFS was Mrs. O’Leary‘s cow was to the city of Chicago?)
* Are you a stiff or a george? Here’s one primer on tipping that may help you find the answer. However, with all the damn resort fees and ‘convenience’ [sic] fees on the Las Vegas Strip and even at some of the locals casinos (I’m looking at you, Green Valley Ranch), it’s definitely cutting into the gratuity budget when you travel to Vegas.
