Sometimes it sure does feel that playing fantasy football is a lot like gambling. There is money to be won and sometimes you feel your odds are better at throwing an eight in craps than starting that second string TE to get you points on Sunday. There are growing concerns that fantasy football is a form of gambling. The video below gives a brief overview of the issue from Bloomberg Law.
MY TAKE: First off, if you are just playing fantasy football for fun, there isn't any issues as there is no money being exchanged or won so Uncle Sam has no reason to coming knocking at your door. CBS Sports, Fox Sports and ESPN don't seem to have any issues with touting these online prize games though...yet.
With the growing popularity of fantasy sports and the emergence of the daily prizes sites, I can foresee that there needs to be some legislation or court ruling that defines what is gambling and what is not both on the state and federal level. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 does that but that does not limit the states from placing restrictions on fantasy sports and enforcing that any games of chance are considered gambling, even though the UIGEA may interpret that fantasy sports does involve some skill.
Hypothetically, lets say a ruling comes down that fantasy sports is a form of gambling then that could seriously hinder the growing market fantasy sports has seen in the last decade. If a ruling does come down and says that fantasy sports is not gambling , then you can believe that there are going to be even more fantasy sports leagues as well as a growing market and ecosystem to support it. That makes this legal question highly watched.
