{"id":17260,"date":"2015-11-23T10:47:42","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T18:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=17260"},"modified":"2015-11-24T13:36:55","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T21:36:55","slug":"the-dark-side-of-dfs-wynn-delay-provokes-caution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/the-dark-side-of-dfs-wynn-delay-provokes-caution\/","title":{"rendered":"The dark side of DFS; Wynn delay provokes caution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daily fantasy sports backlash has claimed its first casualty. Relatively minor site TradeSports.com<\/strong> has gone out of business<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cRecent negative events in the industry have already increased our costs of \"Draft<\/a>operating (and will most likely continue to do so); or perhaps even prevent operations all-together.\u00a0Put simply: We aren\u2019t making enough money,” TradeSports told the Wall Street Journal<\/em>. This closure comes at a time when Georgia<\/strong>, Maryland<\/strong>, Rhode Island<\/strong> and Ohio<\/strong> are joining the pileup of states looking into the propriety of DFS. Even DraftKings<\/strong> is said to be lowering its profile, trying to cut back on its advertising: “We are always in dialogue with [our partner teams], including now.\u201d I’d say especially now.<\/p>\n

Better news for Boston<\/strong>-based DraftKings came in the form of Massachusetts<\/strong> Attorney General Maura Healey<\/strong>‘s proposed consumer protections for the industry. These ranged from limiting play to individuals 21 and older to “preventing players from making deposits of more than $1,000 a month unless they verify they have the financial ability to sustain high losses.” This met with the \"healey_maura\"<\/a>approval of DraftKings, which called Healey’s “a thoughtful and comprehensive approach.” However …<\/p>\n

… DFS has drawn the scrutiny of advocates for the problem-gambling community.\u00a0\u201cIt would be akin to an alcoholic finding out about a whole new street of bars that he never knew about \u2014 exciting, great bars,\u201d says addict Joshua Adams<\/strong>. DFS gave him the quick fix that season-long fantasy leagues didn’t. Things got so bad for him that he was driven to the brink of suicide<\/a>. (It should be noted that what Adams lost on DFS was dwarfed by his degenerate play on illegal sports-betting sites.) Against a story like Adams’ comments like FanDuel<\/strong> CFO Matt King<\/strong>‘s\u00a0\u201cOur product is all about entertainment value,\u201d sound tone-deaf.<\/p>\n

Adams, who started betting at age 13, is the template for the kind of person Healey is trying to protect with her common-sense package of regulations. It’s a good sign that the DFS industry seems willing to accept regulation as an inevitability, for it clearly is needed. “Fantasy games appeal to the demographic most likely to develop gambling problems \u2014 young men, who researchers say are more prone to taking risks,” reports the New York Times<\/em>. And who do you see in DFS TV ads? Twenty-something douchebags. The Times<\/em> also found that the appeal of DFS was filtering down to grade-schoolers. As one counselor\u00a0put it,\u00a0\u201call the students talk about is fantasy sports.\u201d<\/p>\n