Toward the end of the 2017 legislative session, a seven-page bill (House File 1415) legalizing the online daily fantasy sports business was heard in committee in the Minnesota House of Representatives. The bill also licenses, regulates and taxes for-profit companies such as Fan Duel and Draft Kings. All in the space of seven pages.
By comparison, Minnesota’s community-based, non-profit charitable gaming organizations — the operators of bingo, raffles and pull tab games that invest directly in their local communities — have at least 200 pages of statutes and rules that regulate everything they do.
The organizations that the Legislature believes need more regulation than the secretive, billion-dollar fantasy sports enterprises include groups like the Rochester American Legion Post 92. This nonprofit raises funds for local missions like youth baseball and hockey programs, Boy and Girl Scouts troops and high school graduation parties