Online fantasy leagues for cash, wtf?

[playthrough]

OK, someone answer this for me -- I can't legally bet a nickel on a football game against the spread on my computer, but I could drop hundreds into FanDuel or Draft Kings on what amounts to a fantasy football lottery? I have zero desire to play as I can't stand fantasy, but with the endless commercials for these joints on sports radio and elsewhere, I'm wondering how the hell this is legal.

 

[Songbird]

Is Bovada not allowed on your state?

 

[playthrough]

I honestly don't know. I still thought online sports betting was illegal in the majority of states.

 

[Songbird]

Technically it might be. But Bovada does send checks. The instructions they give you on how to deposit the check(s) is amusing. They've always cleared though.

 

[DanOregon]

This pretty much covers it.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/09/how-daily-fantasy-sports-will-create-an-american-gambling-boom/380382/

I don't know what the difference is between this an on-line poker.

 

[Buck]

It's a joke.
I have no trouble playing online poker, but it bothers me that it is still illegal.

There is much more skill involved in poker and much more chance in fantasy sports.

 

[Dick Whitman]

It's a joke.
I have no trouble playing online poker, but it bothers me that it is still illegal.

There is much more skill involved in poker and much more chance in fantasy sports.

I agree that there is skill involved in poker, for sure. But I don't know that there's more involved with poker than fantasy sports. I would guess they are about equal.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

It's a joke.
I have no trouble playing online poker, but it bothers me that it is still illegal.

There is much more skill involved in poker and much more chance in fantasy sports.

I agree that there is skill involved in poker, for sure. But I don't know that there's more involved with poker than fantasy sports. I would guess they are about equal.

Right. I think if you know more than your opponents, it helps, but a lot depends on the cards you get or the players you draft.

 

[clintrichardson]

Sports books and online sports betting should be legal everywhere. Enough already.

 

[Buck]

It's a joke.
I have no trouble playing online poker, but it bothers me that it is still illegal.

There is much more skill involved in poker and much more chance in fantasy sports.

I agree that there is skill involved in poker, for sure. But I don't know that there's more involved with poker than fantasy sports. I would guess they are about equal.

Right. I think if you know more than your opponents, it helps, but a lot depends on the cards you get or the players you draft.

I'm not saying fantasy sports is completely random. Knowing more than your opponents is a huge boost to chances of winning.
But you still control less than you do in poker, where you can bail out at anytime after the ante. When you know you're beat, you can stop playing the hand.
You can be tight or loose. You can set traps for later hands.
This list of skills and tactics you can develop is too long to list.

In fantasy sports, if your best player is out there is only so much you can do.
There are more factors out of your control.

Maybe my opinion is colored by the fact that I'm a decent poker player and a terrible fantasy sports player.

 

[Dick Whitman]

It's a joke.
I have no trouble playing online poker, but it bothers me that it is still illegal.

There is much more skill involved in poker and much more chance in fantasy sports.

I agree that there is skill involved in poker, for sure. But I don't know that there's more involved with poker than fantasy sports. I would guess they are about equal.

Right. I think if you know more than your opponents, it helps, but a lot depends on the cards you get or the players you draft.

I'm not saying fantasy sports is completely random. Knowing more than your opponents is a huge boost to chances of winning.
But you still control less than you do in poker, where you can bail out at anytime after the ante. When you know you're beat, you can stop playing the hand.
You can be tight or loose. You can set traps for later hands.
This list of skills and tactics you can develop is too long to list.

In fantasy sports, if your best player is out there is only so much you can do.

To me, that's like getting a bad hand.

Fantasy sports, played right, require a ton of know-how. And, even then, you might lose because, like you said, luck. Like poker. Nate Silver writes in his book "The Signal and the Noise" that it takes some ungodly number of hands before someone can truly know whether he's actually good at poker or just lucky or unlucky.

The one-day fantasy sites - we had a thread on them once - assign a dollar value to every player. Then you have a salary cap, and have to pick your team for the day based upon that. It takes a lot of work to find the value. Too much work for me, that's for sure.

 

[Buck]

but i can muck a bad hand

 

[Football_Bat]

I remember visiting the UK and there was seemingly a(n appropriately-named) Ladbrokes on every corner like CVS is here. If I could here without going to Vegas, I'd drop a fiver on a few very choice props.

(I'd do the local bookie, but I had an uncle and his son, my cousin, who were in that line of work who wised me up rightly.)

 

[forever_town]

When I've seen the commercials, I always wondered if it was even legit.