1. Jun 07, 2008 The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which took effect at the beginning of last year, includes a specific exemption for fantasy sports, provided the prizes are determined in advance.
2. There is currently an ongoing debate as to whether fantasy sports can be classified as gambling under tax rules (David Baldwin and Donald J. Zidik, “How to Report Clients’ Fantasy Football Winnings,” Journal of Accountancy, February 1, 2016, https://bit.ly/2RGv3B4).
3. Dec 01, 2015 The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 clearly exempts fantasy sports from its list of gambling games. Since fantasy sports contests are considered to be contests of skills, fantasy sports websites are free to offer them for real money without having to obtain a gambling license.
4. Some 56 million fantasy sports players are plunking down money hoping to win big prizes based on the outcome of real world games. Sure sounds like sports gambling, which happens to be illegal in.

An appeals court struck down a 2016 law that said daily fantasy contests were not gambling

A New York appellate court on Thursday held that daily fantasy sports contests like those operated by FanDuel and DraftKings amount to illegal gambling under state law.

The appellate court upheld a lower-court ruling that the 2016 law authorizing daily fantasy sports contests violated the state's constitution by improperly expanding gambling in the state.

It also struck down a provision of the law that held daily fantasy contests were not considered to be gambling.

'(We) have rejected the Legislature's explicitly stated basis for the removal of IFS from the Penal Law definition of gambling,' Justice Robert Mulvey wrote for the majority, using an acronym for fantasy contests. 'Moreover, as part of the same legislation that decriminalized IFS, the Legislature clearly intended that IFS contests be heavily regulated.'

It was not clear whether the ruling would have an immediate effect on the daily fantasy businesses, though FanDuel said it likely would not.

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The appellate court upheld a lower-court ruling that the 2016 law authorizing daily fantasy sports contests violated the state's constitution by improperly expanding gambling in the state.

'We expect that there will be an appeal and we'll be able to continue to offer contests while that appeal is decided,' the company said in a statement.

DraftKings also defended its business in a statement.

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“We believe the legislative action authorizing fantasy sports in New York was constitutional and in the best interests of taxpayers and fantasy sports fans,' the company said.

WNBC's parent company Comcast Corp. was a past investor in FanDuel.