Weeks ago, it was discovered that Fantasy Sports Site DraftKings had staff that had been on a steady winning streak playing daily fantasy sports. However, they were playing not on their employer’s site, but on rival site FanDuel.

Further investigations revealed that at least one of DraftKings employees used a data dump with enough information about players to be selected before the day’s game. The workers were found out to have won more than $350,000 in the same week.

The saga brought a whirlpool into the whole fantasy sports industry, turning it upside down. But considering that the fantasy system is determined ultimately by the luck of whether players actually perform well, can participants really cheat?

Where The Problem Lies

There are some gaming opponents who have invested in sports betting strategies who were able to point out that this behaviour could be classified as cheating especially on account of how had gamblers put their money on the line.

It goes without saying that every gaming website, just like a casino, has the responsibility of ensuring that every game runs on a neutral and just platform.  The scandal brought to light the lack of system integrity that has come to haunt legalised online and sports gambling companies in America.

A lot of time, plenty of hard work and funds have been spent into moving sports gambling into a mainstream activity. Such silly and selfish acts are reason enough to make the industry be relegated from mainstream back into the shadows. This so far has been a key weapon for opponents of online gambling and may be a major turning point for the argument against it, especially in a country that is still exploring the boundaries of online gambling.

Is It Skill or Is It Gambling?

In the US, daily fantasy sports playing was awarded a Special Unlawful Gambling Act after the Department of Justice came to the conclusion that playing fantasy sports is a game of skill and not a game of chance. The law is the reason the successful multi-billion-dollar fantasy sports industry has been left unsupervised.

The aforementioned incident, however, has reignited the never ending debate whether fantasy sports play is a form of gambling or not.

In the UK, no such debate has ever taken place due to the seamless transition that football betting as well as in-play betting has made into mainstream gambling. However, the widespread implementation of such betting practices has made it possible for the strict regulation and legislation of the practices.

You would now be hard-pressed to watch any television for five minutes in the UK without seeing a sports gambling advertisement – and television coverage of football is only getting more saturated with gambling ads. But you can guarantee that the appropriate public entities would be taking their fair share in the way of licences and whatnot.

The fact that there is no betting allowed on any sports in the US (unless you’re in Las Vegas) means that would-be gamblers have turned to fantasy football which utilise similar strategies that you would see on out and out betting ie; sports enthusiasts always checking the NFL consensus picks before picking a team etc. We are still left to wonder the difference between skill and gambling given that the use of statistics is such an important part of playing fantasy sports.

We have to hand it to Fantasy Sports industry lobbyists who did a tremendous job by convincing the Department of Justice that selecting a fantasy sports team demands some special skills.

The Zest of It All

In America where debate about the subject is rife, the Fantasy Sports Industry is getting a kicking from Casino owners and associations. Casino owners have showed a desire of holding a monopoly on Sports gambling and the instant the news about the DraftKings employees went to the media, Nevada enacted a law demanding Fantasy sports sites to abide.

The law requires these sites to apply for a gaming license before Las Vegas residents would be able to access their websites. Gambling is deeply entrenched in the American culture and it does seem ridiculous that fantasy sports should be differentiated from sporting activities such as the lottery and horse racing.

Fantasy Sports Future

Fortunately, since there are many big money investors, sponsors and spenders, fantasy sports are here to stay. But like all good things, the thing that will be focused on in the near-future is coming up with a way to regulate and tax the booming industry.

Governments are doing what it can to get involved in the discussions. Hopefully, their involvement will lead to the realisation of laws that will see fantasy sports gambling in the US, legalised and regulated.

Contributor John Hawthorne is the author of the above article. John is a sports Journalist and avid researcher who corresponds for http://www.simplythebetsus.com/