Legality of daily fantasy sports

is investigated by Florida Senate president.

TALLAHASSEE — Florida Senate President Andy Gardiner is exploring what the state can do to shut down daily fantasy sports, even as federal prosecutors are probing the online industry that has taken the nation by storm and drawn accusations of illegal gambling.

Gardiner has asked his lawyers to look into fantasy sports, in which players pay entry fees to draft teams that compete against each other for cash prizes based on the actual performance of players.

The fast-growing daily fantasy sports industry is the focus of probes by prosecutors in New York and Tampa, where the U.S. Attorney’s Office recently subpoenaed the Florida-based Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

People in the industry contend that fantasy sports is not gambling because it involves games of skill, not chance, which are outlawed under most state gambling laws.

But gambling regulators in Nevada last week ordered companies such as FanDuel and DraftKings to stop operating in the state after determining that online players’ activity “involves wagering on the collective performance of individuals participating in sporting events.”

“I have asked staff to kind of start the process of researching as much as we possibly can,” said Gardiner, R-Orlando. “I would remind you we ran the Internet cafes out of the state of Florida because they were outlawed and they were bad. You have the Nevada Gaming Commission saying that FanDuel and DraftKings are gaming and gambling. So we have an obligation, if we’re going to be consistent, that we need to look at them, and, if it is gaming, then we need to react to it.”

House Speaker Steve Crisafulli also has directed legal aides to explore the fantasy sports issue.

“It is early in this conversation and there is a lot to learn about the status of this industry under Florida law. We intend to understand that more before any decisions will be made moving forward,” Crisafulli said.