California To Consider DFS RegulationCould Golden State Regulate DFS Sites Before I-Poker Sites? |
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A bill that was introduced into the California legislature in February was amended on Thursday and now is a proposal to regulate fantasy sports in the Golden State.
Assemblyman Adam Gray is pushing the legislation. Gray was the author of one of several online poker bills in California that were on the table in 2015, but efforts to regulate the digital card game have hit the muck thanks to the legislative session ending last week. The online fantasy sports bill will be considered next year, as will online poker proposals. California has been looking at online poker for years without success.
The DFS sports bill has not been voted on yet.
According to LegalSportsReport, California is the 12th state this year to consider legislation pertaining to DFS sites. Earlier this month, Michigan indicated its plan to look at DFS regulation. Also this year, the state of Kansas enacted a bill that made fantasy sports explicitly legal. Fantasy sports have issues with existing law in Iowa, Montana, Arizona, Louisiana, Texas and the state of Washington. Lawmakers in all of those states except Arizona have began considering legislation.
According to recent analysis by Eilers Research, the DFS market could reach $2.5 billion by 2020, which has drawn the likes of Disney, PokerStars and Yahoo! to the space.
The California bill aims to change the fact that “revenues generated from these games are being realized by unlicensed operators and do not provide any benefits to the citizens of California.” The legislation said the state can also provide consumer protection and other social benefits by licensing DFS sites.
The bill would require DFS players to be at least 21 years of age.
A tax rate has yet to be proposed.
The bill would require a licensed operator to pay an annual regulatory fee, for deposit into the Fantasy Sports Fund, which the bill would establish in the State Treasury. The bill would continuously appropriate the Fantasy Sports Fund to the department for the reasonable costs of license oversight, consumer protection, state regulation, and other purposes related to the bill. The bill would require each licensed operator to pay a one-time license fee into the General Fund in an unspecified amount. The license fee would be credited against quarterly fees equivalent to an unspecified percentage of the licensed operator’s gross income that is attributable to the operation of an authorized Internet Web site in California.
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