Step toward fantasy football legalization in Washington is not big enough

Fantasy football games have become a fixture of office life, of college life, and anywhere fans congregate to follow the progress of a sports season.

That pastime has grown considerably, especially with the rise of online gaming websites such as FanDuel and DraftKings.

“It used to be that you played for an entire season. Now you can have daily games, and it’s turned into a multi-billion dollar industry,” said KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “There’s also some controversy where one of the company’s employees were using insider info to profit at another company.”

That controversy has resulted in lawsuits.

But the rise of fantasy gaming has not been felt in Washington where it falls into the category of online gambling, and is therefore illegal.

“Our state is one of the only states where it is illegal to play fantasy sports. I wouldn’t play those games, but it seems pretty ridiculous that we’re one of the only states where it’s illegal,” Monson said.

“Somebody is trying to carve out a limited exemption for those games and that is State Senator Pam Roach,” he said.

Roach, (R-Auburn), has been crafting a bill that would legalize one aspect of fantasy gaming, but not all.

“I recognize that Washington is one of only five states that doesn’t allow online fantasy football,” Roach said.

“My bill would carve out individuals who participate in what I call ‘water cooler fantasy football;’ among your brothers and friends,” she said. “A lot of people are doing this, the stakes are very low, maybe it’s $100, maybe it’s $25 and maybe it’s nothing. These games take place over, usually, the whole season … that is not allowed in Washington state. I believe we should be able to carve out this casual player.”

But it leaves other popular forms of fantasy gaming still considered illegal.

“Where that industry has had an explosion of growth is in the daily game,” Dori said. “There was one big sporting event last night, it was a baseball game. If somebody wanted to go online in 45 of the states and assemble a fantasy lineup for that one game and compete against other people, you can do that in these other states.”

“That is where the industry has exploded because it is moving toward unfettered sports gambling,” he said.

Seasonal fantasy play is one thing, Roach said. But she’s not ready to add daily games.

“We now realize that it has problems. Not just with what happened with FanDuel and DraftKings, but also because it has gotten so big. It is unregulated,” she said.

Roach said she’s prepared to push for “water cooler” fantasy games, but further legalization will take a larger conversation in Olympia. And at the end of that conversation, there will be parameters.

“What I would envision is that there would be a cap on how much money you could bet, maybe it’s $100. I don’t know,” she said. “And we could say the game has to span at least a week, or three games … maybe there’s a parameter on how many people can get in on it.”

“This is a whole new area of law that has not been addressed by the Washington State Legislature,” Roach said. “What I’m doing is trying to carve out of that debate for people who do this casually. The rest of it is huge, and it is going to take [more than] one session.”

But Dori remains unsatisfied with Washington’s outlook on the issue. He’s glad Roach is taking a step, but he wants more progress. While sparing the state senator from his critique, he believes getting online gaming legalized in Washington will be an uphill battle against interest groups.

“I think our Legislature has been paid off by gambling interest because they want to protect their monopoly … I think it’s very strange that we are one of two states where you can smoke weed and yet one of only five states where you can’t play poker, and you can’t play fantasy [games],” he said.

“I’m confident that the reason it’s not legal is because one of your former colleagues, Margarita Prentice, got bought off to pass some of the toughest online gambling laws in the country,” Dori argued. “Somebody who plays poker for 25 cents a hand in Washington can be a felon and go to prison for 10 years. It is worse to play online poker than to drive drunk and kill somebody in our state, as far as punishment goes. That’s insane to me.”