From The "World's Stupidist Lawsuits" File
Via Overlawyered, more on this ridiculous lawsuit against companies running fantasy sports leagues.
"Wow." What else is there to say?
OK, well, two things to say:
1- The vast majority of fantasy football players don't play for money. No one gambles on the possibility of winning money 16 or 17 weeks down the road. That's more like a real estate investment than pulling a slot machine or playing a hand of blackjack.
2- I would love to explain my fantasy football failures away as gambling losses. It would be nice if my 6 year playoff drought was just my bad luck in a game of chance, rather than my own fault for having a penchant for picking aging running backs in the first round (Eddie George, Marshall Faulk, ect.) But that would be rather dishonest of me. As the members of my own league will tell you, not only am I a bad owner- my teams also play terrible defense.
Update 8/3/06 @ 4:15 PM: Perhaps my real estate/black jack comparison was not so apt, as a Fan For All Seasons points out. Nonetheless, the appeal of fantasy sports is much different from the appeal of gambling. Far more people play in free fantasy football leagues than play in leagues that charge them money to join. For most fantasy footballers, money prizes are a bonus, not the reason to play in the first place. Additionally, many of the recent complaints about internet gambling have focused on the ease with which one can lose money. "Click a mouse, lose your house" was a slogan coined by one anti-internet gambling politician. Such is not the case with fantasy football, and I would imagine that's not the case with bets placed at the beginning of a season that won't come to fruition for 4 or 5 months. Maybe those sorts of bets, along with fantasy football, are closer to real estate and the stock market than they are to a hand of blackjack. Just goes to show you how arbitrary gambling laws actually are.
"Wow." What else is there to say?
OK, well, two things to say:
1- The vast majority of fantasy football players don't play for money. No one gambles on the possibility of winning money 16 or 17 weeks down the road. That's more like a real estate investment than pulling a slot machine or playing a hand of blackjack.
2- I would love to explain my fantasy football failures away as gambling losses. It would be nice if my 6 year playoff drought was just my bad luck in a game of chance, rather than my own fault for having a penchant for picking aging running backs in the first round (Eddie George, Marshall Faulk, ect.) But that would be rather dishonest of me. As the members of my own league will tell you, not only am I a bad owner- my teams also play terrible defense.
Update 8/3/06 @ 4:15 PM: Perhaps my real estate/black jack comparison was not so apt, as a Fan For All Seasons points out. Nonetheless, the appeal of fantasy sports is much different from the appeal of gambling. Far more people play in free fantasy football leagues than play in leagues that charge them money to join. For most fantasy footballers, money prizes are a bonus, not the reason to play in the first place. Additionally, many of the recent complaints about internet gambling have focused on the ease with which one can lose money. "Click a mouse, lose your house" was a slogan coined by one anti-internet gambling politician. Such is not the case with fantasy football, and I would imagine that's not the case with bets placed at the beginning of a season that won't come to fruition for 4 or 5 months. Maybe those sorts of bets, along with fantasy football, are closer to real estate and the stock market than they are to a hand of blackjack. Just goes to show you how arbitrary gambling laws actually are.
posted by lonely libertarian at 10:38 PM
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