Gambling opponents are asking a judge to completely shut down fantasy sports betting in New York in light of the jurist declaring the online contests unconstitutional in a ruling last month.
In October, Albany Supreme Court Justice Gerald Connolly sided with the anti-gambling activists and declared that a 2016 law permitting interactive fantasy sports was “null and void.”
Connolly also said that state lawmakers had the “full authority” to decriminalize the contests and that “any finding of unconstitutionality in such context would be beyond the scope of the judicial review authority.”
But the activists attorney Neil Murray says in a new filing that the judge has created a “Wild West” atmosphere where contests run by popular companies like FanDuel and DraftKings continue under licenses that the court has declared unconstitutional.
“The supreme irony is that as a result of this court’s decision the current situation is one in which IFS operators, such as FanDuel and DraftKings, continue to operate in New York with total impunity in defiance of this court’s decision that the authorization for such activity was unconstitutional,” Murray writes.
“The current confusion is caused by the incongruity of this court’s decision, which, on the one hand, declared IFS to be unconstitutional gambling, but nevertheless allowed the legislature to pass a law that effectively allows such activity to continue,” Murray says.
He wants the judge to remove the law’s exclusion of fantasy sports from the state’s definition of gambling, which remains illegal in most forms.
The state only created the loophole so it could collect lucrative taxes on the contests, Murray argues.
He’s also asking for an order rescinding the state-issued licenses, which would put companies like FanDuel and DraftKings out of business in New York.
A hearing is scheduled for January.
Josh Schiller, an attorney for DraftKings, said he expects the judge to reject Murray’s demands. Or, he said, the matter could be stayed pending an appeal of the October ruling by the state’s Gaming Commission. The appeal was filed Wednesday.
Reps for the commission did not immediately return messages.
