Draftkings Is Suing NY's Casino-Loving Attorney General Schneiderman For His "Unconstitutional" Attempt To Shut Daily Fantasy Sports Down

Globe – DraftKings Inc. filed suit against New York’s attorney general on Friday, asking the state Supreme Court to halt his attempts to shut down fantasy sports in a dispute over illegal gambling that has threatened to stifle the multibillion-dollar industry.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman ordered Boston-based DraftKings and New York-based FanDuel Inc. [ED. NOTE: Who? Never heard of em] to cease operations in the state on Tuesday, arguing that they were violating state gambling law.

But the companies have continued to offer games to New Yorkers, who make up the largest pools of active, paying players in North America, and said previously that they intended to fight Schneiderman in court.

“Today, we have taken decisive legal action to prevent a unilateral, misinformed and legally misguided attempt by the New York attorney general to act as ‘judge, jury, and executioner’ for daily fantasy sports in New York,” DraftKings said in a statement.

DraftKings also said it had hired another high-powered lawyer: David Boies, who argued the Democratic case in Bush v. Gore, the dispute over the 2000 presidential election. Previously, it said it had retained Randy Mastro, who served as chief of staff and deputy mayor under former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

“We are confident in our legal position and intend to continue to fight to preserve the right of the over 500,000 New York consumers to play the fantasy sports games they love,” DraftKings said.

Love Draftkings using one week of their advertising budget to hire an insanely high-powered and connected lawyer, savvy resource reallocation on their part. But anyway let’s take the whole debate over the “game of skill” thing off the plate here, even though I’m still fully of the belief they’re right to consider it that despite the fact that previously banned forms of gambling might also be games of skill for the same rationale. But I’m happy with Draftkings’ move here, mostly because this is a battle they need to pick. I said when this New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman first came out with his dick-wagging press release about cleaning up the streets of those evil daily fantasy sports companies:

It’s the most naked attempt at positive PR designed to trick dumb people who’ll go “Yeah! That Eric Schneiderman is on my side!” that I’ve ever seen. He’s not some local news reporter doing a “Shame on You!” segment about a laundromat clerk who rounds up on every dollar and keeps the difference…I always hope for the best that people will see beyond the surface and think for themselves but if some guy issuing a statement like he’s John Wayne cleaning up varmints doesn’t raise an eyebrow, it’s beyond all hope.

That’s the thing with stuff like this. It’s never agendaless, never something actually here to help us. And this particular reach for headlines was so egregious that even state representatives immediately came out calling out Schneiderman’s move for what it was:

But it goes deeper than that (seriously, Schneiderman once had this Collins guy’s house raided by feds for no actual reason). I mentioned in the blog linked above that our buddy Schneiderman doesn’t have much of a problem with there being gambling in the state given the state’s horse racing, state lotteries, and even slot/poker machine gambling at horse tracks that rake in $3.2 billion annually. But apparently he’s been cozy with the casino industry, the same folks who drove a ban on daily fantasy sports in equally prominent Nevada, for a long time. This clip is from the October 22, 2010 New York Post:

[State Inspector General Joseph] Fisch alleges that the Senate leadership [driven by Schneiderman] wired the bid of its favored vendor, Aqueduct Entertainment Group (AEG), by leaking confidential information about competing bids to AEG.

Whereupon AEG shelled out tens of thousands in contributions to Senate Democrats as well as to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (to which, it so happens, Schneiderman has promised its own “annex” in the AG’s office if he’s elected).

There’s more — much more — and Fisch has forwarded it all to Manhattan DA Cy Vance and US Attorney Preet Bharara for possible prosecution.

The AEG deal unraveled after the Lottery Division deemed the firm “unlicensable.” Ultimately, the agency picked Genting New York to run the video casino.

And a week later, the Post followed up:

It seems that some of the same sordid characters who tried to deliver the scandal-scarred Aqueduct racino contract into the lap of their politically wired bidder are resurfacing in the employ of the eventual winner, Genting New York.

And wouldn’t you know it, the common link between them is none other than Schneiderman himself.

Now, The Post’s Brendan Scott and Carl Campanile report, Genting — the Asian gaming firm that won the lucrative contract — has hired Cordo & Co. to be its primary lobbyist at $300,000 a year.

Wouldn’t you know it? That’s the very same firm that was a lobbyist and key strategist for Aqueduct Entertainment Group (AEG), which eventually was disqualified after first winning the contract — though not before Schneiderman’s colleagues did everything they could to fix the system in AEG’s favor.

And who is a partner in Cordo? Why, super-lobbyist Jennifer Cunningham — Eric Schneiderman’s ex-wife and currently his media strategist and de facto campaign manager.

Moreover, it turns out that the wife of another AEG lobbyist is a $120,000-a-year Schneiderman adviser on the staff of the Senate Codes Committee, which he chairs.

Does this sound like someone without an agenda? Someone working in the best interests of people who think they’re being “fleeced” out of money because they roll out of bed, drop $50 on a daily fantasy sports lineup with their main research being “I watch Sportscenter”? Or just another guy in the pocket of, and literally in bed with, influential people working with organizations with a very steeped interest in not seeing daily fantasy sports reach the mainstream while gambling continues to operate on the fringes? Eric Schneiderman was trying to kill two birds with one stone, improve his public standing for whatever political office he wants to tackle next while placating his gambling and horse racing masters who seem to line the pockets of a lot of people in his inner circle.

If anything, that’s what I hope we all take away from this week. The protests, this controversy over daily fantasy sports, it’s all such agenda-driven reporting. It’s up to all of us not to take these things at face value and find ways to keep checks and balances on the people who use misinformation and outrage to force their own world views upon us. Think for yourself, don’t just react because there’s a good headline on an article featuring a strongly worded quote given by someone who was sucking the dick of a guy in a poker visor in an alleyway for donations two days prior. Everyone out there has an angle.