In December 2015, then-Illinois AG Lisa Madigan joined New York and a handful of other states in declaring the DFS contests offered by DraftKings and rival FanDuel to be illegal gambling games. It was a position that was hotly disputed by the two operators.<\/p>\n
This resulted in several class-action lawsuits from former DraftKings and FanDuel customers, who were hoping to claw back lost buy-ins in states where the DFS sites\u2019 operations were suddenly deemed illegal.<\/p>\n
As Illinois prepared to legalize sports betting last year as part of a sprawling gambling expansion package, Rivers was furious that so-called \u201cbad actors\u201d should be permitted to enter the market with a ready-made customer-base to leverage.<\/p>\n
My client has paid $125 million at an auction for a casino license. My client has paid $1.6 billion of revenue \u2014 legal tax revenue \u2014 to the state,\u201d<\/strong> Paul Gaynor, a lawyer for Rivers, told WTTW News<\/em> at the time. \u201cMeantime, the illegal operators who have been operating daily fantasy sports in violation of our criminal laws, they have not been paying a dime.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nRivers\u2019 lobbyists went to work, convincing lawmakers to establish a so-called \u201cpenalty box,\u201d which meant digital-only operators that were not partnered with land-based casinos could not receive a license until 2022. Until then, all mobile sports betting offered by existing licensed operators would have to take in-person registrations.<\/strong><\/p>\nRobins argued that by freezing out the most experienced digital operators, the state would be denying itself tax dollars, while Rush Street CEO Neil Bluhm was using \u201cpolitical muscle to box out the competition so [he] can profit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who Can Lobby Harder?<\/strong><\/h2>\nBut DraftKings, FanDuel, and others in the digital space also have lobbyists, and last Friday, they got their way. Pritzker first waived the in-person registration requirement in June, when sports began to return, but the casinos remained closed.<\/p>\n
But in July, when Pritzker renewed the COVID-19 state of emergency in Illinois, he did so without renewing the order waiving the registration requirement.<\/p>\n
On Friday, to Robins\u2019 delight, it was back.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood policy always wins in the long-run,\u201d he taunted in Monday\u2019s provocative message. Two hours later, he thought better and deleted his tweet.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins on Monday said that it \u201cfelt good\u201d that his company was finally taking mobile sports betting registrations in Illinois after a U-turn by Governor J. B. Pritzker (D) on the issue last Friday. But at the same time, Robins couldn\u2019t resist a dig at his old adversary, Rush Street Gaming, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":146147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
DraftKings CEO Fires Insult at Rush Street in Illinois Sports Betting Spat<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n