Idaho AG Strikes Landmark Fantasy Sports Agreement With DraftKings and FanDuel 

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Two high-profile online fantasy sports franchises have reached an agreement with the Idaho Attorney General’s office to quit conducting paid contests in Idaho. The agreement, announced Monday, was with DraftKings and FanDuel, two of the nation’s biggest companies offering paid fantasy sports contests. Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said the agreement with the two companies was reached after months of negotiation.

“The concern I have is that the paid daily sports offerings provided by these companies constitute gambling under Idaho law,” said Wasden in Monday’s announcement. “My concern is that the daily fantasy sports offerings my office reviewed require participants to risk money for a cash prize contingent upon individual athletes’ collective performances in various future sporting events. As I see it, this falls within Idaho’s definition of gambling.”

Read more at Boise Weekly…

Gamblers lose $6 for every $1 Florida gets, Rep. Van Zant says

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While the Senate signaled its gambling bills were all but dead this year, they’ve stayed on life support in the House. But one lawmaker wanted his fellow representatives to remember gaming revenues come at a high price.

Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Keystone Heights, said lawmakers should remember that all gaming revenue is money someone has lost.

“Every time you lose a dollar at gaming, there’s six more dollars that are lost,” Van Zant said during a Feb. 29, 2016, meeting of the House Finance and Tax Committee. “For every time the state gets paid a dollar in taxes, somebody loses $6, is another way of saying that.”

Van Zant was speaking against HB 7109, a wide-ranging gaming bill that in part allowed for the ratification of the contentious gaming compact the Seminole Tribe of Florida negotiated with Gov. Rick Scott in 2015. The bill also included all sorts of provisions for pari-mutuels, licenses and permits, care of racing greyhounds, and more.

Read more at Politifact…

Paxton: Daily fantasy sports betting like DraftKings is illegal gambling

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AUSTIN – Daily fantasy sports betting in Texas is illegal, according to an opinion released by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday.

Paxton’s opinion argues that fantasy sport operations are wrong for claiming that they’re skill based. In his nonbinding opinion, Paxton said it is “beyond reasonable dispute that daily fantasy leagues involve an element of chance regarding how a selected player will perform on game day.”

He noted in his opinion that Texas’ law defines gambling as a game with ‘partial chance’ – a stricter definition than how some other states define the practice.

“Paid daily ‘fantasy sports’ operators claim they can legally operate as an unregulated house, but none of their arguments square with existing Texas law,” Paxton said in a statement. “Simply put, it is prohibited gambling in Texas if you bet on the performance of a participant in a sporting event and the house takes a cut.”

Daily fantasy sports websites allow players to buy into a game. Players create a team using real pro stars, whose statistics in actual games are then tallied. The fantasy players win or lose money based on how their team performs.

The industry has taken off in recent years, growing from 32 million players in 2010 to more than 56 million in 2015, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

In a statement, a spokesman for fantasy sports site DraftKings said they disagreed with Paxton’s opinion.

“The Texas Legislature has expressly authorized games of skill, and daily fantasy sports are a game of skill,” said Randy Mastro, legal counsel to DraftKings. “The Attorney General’s prediction is predicated on a fundamental misunderstanding of [daily fantasy sports]. We intend to continue to operate openly and transparently in Texas, so that the millions of Texans who are fantasy sports fans can continue to enjoy the contests they love.”

Read more at The Dallas Morning News…

From GREY2K USA

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From an email sent by From GREY2k USA:

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Dear Friends,

Yesterday, GREY2K USA learned that the last greyhound track in Texas was calling it quits! That’s right, Gulf Greyhound Park, the third and final dog track in the Lone Star State will close its doors to live racing by January 1.

Read the Galveston Daily News and Austin American-Statesman stories now.

Gulf Greyhound Park is one of the worst dog tracks in the country, and this is truly a victory for everyone who cares about dogs. Hundreds of greyhounds will now be released from their cages and given the second chance they deserve. If you are interested in adopting, please contact our friends at Greyhound Rescue Austin or the Texas Adopt a Greyhound Society.

More than two thousand greyhound injuries have been reported at Gulf since 2008 alone, including broken legs, puncture wounds, a broken neck and a crushed skull. During the same period, 115 dogs died or were destroyed due to the severity of their injuries. Meanwhile, the amount of money gambled on live racing fell by 61% over the last decade. As a result, there were fewer and fewer funds muzzled greyhoundavailable to care for the greyhounds, and at least one kennel worker was sanctioned for failing to seek veterinary care for an injured dog. Another trainer was also caught on tape using live rabbits to bait his dogs.

Read more about dog racing in Texas and nationwide in our national High Stakes report.

Once Texas racing ends later this year, greyhound racing will be legal and operation in just six states. Thanks to everyone who worked with us last summer to keep slot machines out of Gulf Greyhound Park. The track spokesperson has conceded that this was the last hope she had for keeping the aging facility afloat and acknowledges that “the economics of live greyhound racing have significantly deteriorated.”

Enough greyhounds have suffered and died while racing in Texas, but soon this cruelty will come to an end. Please continue to support our work until the dogs in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, West Virginia and worldwide get the same chance.

Together we can do it!

Nebraskan’s Body Found at Iowa Casino

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Omaha World Herald   Jan. 22, 2013

Authorities are investigating the death of a Nebraska man whose body was found at a casino parking garage in Council Bluffs. The body of the 54-year-old Omaha man was found a little after 9:30 p.m. Sunday on the ground level of the parking garage of Harrah’s Casino & Hotel. Police Sgt. David Dawson says the man is believed to have jumped from the fifth floor of the garage around 6:30 p.m. Dawson says a note was found in the man’s vehicle and that “it doesn’t appear that anything is suspicious” about the man’s death.