Despite ban, users are reportedly still able to play DraftKings in Nevada
It’s still possible to play daily fantasy football site DraftKings in Nevada despite an order from state regulators demanding the site shut down there, according to Legal Sports Report’s Chris Grove.
This week, the Nevada Gaming Control Board ruled that fantasy sites like DraftKings were “illegal without the appropriate license” and that therefore “all unlicensed activities must cease and desist.”
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But Grove conducted a test that showed that as of Saturday it was still possible to play the site.
“We were able to enter real-money contests on DraftKings, including contests starting within the hour, without restriction,” he wrote. “We were asked to confirm via a check-box that we were ‘not a resident’ of Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, or Washington State. We checked the box. No further verification occurred.”
DraftKings did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Board rep told Grove it was looking into the issue.
Nevada is the first state to announce an explicit sanction against such sites, although many sites block access in states where they believe they’d face liability, Grove told me. Here is the table he has put together showing access by selected states:
Daily fantasy sports sites are now facing FBI scrutiny, according to a recent New York Times report, over concerns from players and lawmakers that the sites were using predatory tactics to attract and retain users, as well as over their possible misuse of insider information.
Earlier this month, the Times’ Joe Drape and Jacqueline Williams reported that a DraftKings employee inadvertently released data on player ownership rates that could have proven useful in betting on any of the daily fantasy sports sites. The employee, Ethan Haskell, was found to have made $350,000 on rival site FanDuel. Both sites now ban employees from playing on each other’s sites in addition to their own. There is no credible accusation or any evidence that his win was facilitated by access to inside data.
Rob covers business, economics and the environment for Fusion. He previously worked at Business Insider. He grew up in Chicago.