Fantasy Sports Hearing a Waste of Taxpayer Money?
Lawmakers are holding a hearing on Capitol Hill on whether daily fantasy sports websites offer illegal gambling.
“When you look at this, they are coming at it in such a way that scares me because these hearings are a waste of taxpayers’ money, they are a waste of time as far as I’m concerned,” Fantasy Sports Network CEO Lou Maione told the FOX Business Network’s Sandra Smith.
Maione weighed in on the impact of regulations and hearings on small business.
“If you want to do this from the federal level that’s fine, but it’s state by state now and this is going to take time and money and it’s going to hurt the small business owner like the Fantasy Sports Network.”
Maione further explained why overregulation kills jobs and is detrimental to the U.S. economy.
“And when you hurt small business and guys like me that have spent millions of dollars to bring the Fantasy Sports Network to life, people will lose their jobs. And if people lose their jobs, it’s not good for America.”
Maione also discussed the lack of witnesses attending the hearing from the industry that are knowledgeable and able to defend fantasy sports.
“At this point it’s too late. The federal law, 2006, we know what happened then and I think these hearings, think about it, Jerry Jones isn’t there from the Dallas Cowboys – Is he there? No. Is FanDuel and DraftKings there? No. Was I invited there? No. The CEO, CSO of the Fantasy Sports Network, a 24-hour television network that is dedicated to fantasy sports fans around the world -- I’m not there.”
On the debate over whether fantasy sports is a game of skill versus a game of chance, Maione said, “It is a game of skill. I mean let’s face it, if I played you today, you would not beat me – I have experts, you would never beat me, 99 out of 100 times, I have the experts.”