Justice Dept. Not Impressed By Guy Who Deposited $35 With FanDuel And Won More Than $2 Million

Don't even think about trying to deposit that check.

Daily fantasy sports leagues are not just Insider Trading 3.0®, maybe. They’re also maybe not so much games of skill as much as they are illegal online gambling with all sorts of unsavory people involved. At least, federal prosecutors up in Boston are mulling the possibility over.

Congress in 2006 prohibited financial companies from transferring money to online gambling sites and several were shut down. But so-called games of skill were exempted. Fantasy-sports sites have since operated under that exemption. So-called daily fantasy sites like DraftKings and FanDuel, Inc. didn’t become popular until after the law was enacted.

The Justice Department is trying to determine whether daily fantasy games are a form of gambling that falls outside the purview of the exemption. No decision on the matter has been reached, these people said.

FBI, Justice Department Investigating Daily Fantasy Sports Business Model [WSJ]