Living a fantasy

Sports sites legally registered to operate

Daily fantasy sports, long living in a legal gray area in many states, are now 100 percent OK in Pennsylvania — and 15 percent taxed.

Six fantasy sports sites, including DraftKings and FanDuel, are registered to legally operate under a state law that went into effect Saturday and was part of a larger statewide gaming expansion.

But don’t sweat, players: Competitors on those six sites aren’t likely to see any change in play and won’t need to re-register.

“As far as the game participation for the player, they’re really not going to see anything different than they have before,” Gaming Control Board spokesman Doug Harbach said Tuesday.

Daily fantasy sports, where users pay an entry fee to participate in contests with payouts, are different from traditional fantasy sports played by friends who create their own leagues and compete over the course of a sports season.

Considered a game of skill, daily fantasy sports have not been considered by the courts to be gambling, Mr. Harbach said. The money players spend is considered an entry fee, not a bet. But in recent years, some states have called it illegal gambling, so bills nationwide have been introduced to formally legalize it in various states. Pennsylvania is now out of the gray area.

And, of course, there’s the tax benefit. The point of legalizing the games was not just to