Bill legalizing fantasy sports OK’d

Ohioans drafting Cleveland Browns quarterback Cody Kessler to lead their fantasy football teams can have their judgment questioned, but they wouldn’t have to fear having violated state law under a bill passed by the state House on Wednesday.

Legislation legalizing the popular fantasy-sports industry in Ohio passed 82-15. Oversight and licensing of the for-profit online industry would fall to the Ohio Casino Control Commission, but the games would specifically be exempt from state gambling laws.

“This is not gambling. This is a skill-based game that requires an awful lot of research and prep work,”

said Rep. Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, the bill's sponsor. “I can speak from experience. There have been years when I haven’t done anything until the last second, and I got slaughtered.”

But that skill-game designation has some people scratching their heads.

“By exempting fantasy contests from the gambling law, it could also suggest that a fantasy contest would be considered gambling but for the exemption,” the nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission wrote in its analysis. “If fantasy contests are not gambling, it is not clear why they need to be exempt from the gambling law.”

In fantasy sports, a participant pays money and drafts real professional players, accumulating points based on how those players perform.

McColley stressed that the bill would not affect those who compete in fantasy sports with friends and family members through free online sites such as ESPN.com and Yahoo. The bill is aimed at companies such as DraftKings and Ohio-based sites such as WhatIfSports and Fantasy Football Calculator that take a cut of the money put up by players.

Rep. Mike Duffey, R-Worthington, voted against the bill, calling it an expansion of gambling in which, unlike with casinos, racinos and the Ohio Lottery, schools and governments don’t receive a portion of the profits.

He noted that the House just passed a budget prohibiting the use of credit cards to buy lottery tickets, but this bill would legalize fantasy-sports participation paid for with a credit card.

“We’re all over the map right now,” Duffey said. “How can we with a straight face say we’re being philosophically consistent on gambling laws?"

A key difference in fantasy sports, compared to traditional gambling, McColley said, is that those running the sites take a cut of the wagers but don't care who wins.

Current laws don’t really address the fantasy industry, McColley said, a view backed by Attorney General Mike DeWine, whose office last year urged lawmakers to address it.

Scott Ward, an attorney representing FanDuel and DraftKings, the two largest fantasy-sports websites, said 1.9 million Ohioans play fantasy sports, and the Ohio bill defines the industry similarly to how laws in 11 other states do. No state, he said, has defined fantasy sports as gambling.

Under the bill, which now goes to the Senate, a fantasysports site could not allow minors to play, would have to block those who might have unfair access to professional athletes and officials, and could not include college or high school athletics.

In other business, the House approved a scaled-down version of Judy’s Law, introduced in response to an August 2015 attack against Judy Malinowski, a 33-year-old mother of two from New Albany who was doused with gasoline and burned by her ex-boyfriend.

Michael Slager of Gahanna was sentenced in December to the maximum 11 years in prison for the attack. Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Julie Lynch and others expressed frustration that she could not give him a harsher punishment.

“It’s now time for us to do our job to ensure the victims in the future, like Judy, receive the justice they deserve,” said Rep. Jim Hughes, R-Upper Arlington, the bill's sponsor.

Under the bill, a person convicted of felonious assault would get a mandatory additional six years in prison if an accelerant was used and the victim suffered permanent, serious disfigurement or incapacity.

The original bill would have added five to 20 years and did not require use of an accelerant. It now goes to the Senate.