A couple of years ago, one of DraftKing’s employers managed to win over 350,000 US dollars by having some inside information. Since then, this new form of making money has come under the spotlight, and lawmakers have started wondering if this is a new form of gambling and whether it should be regulated.
This controversy didn’t slow down player interest, and over one weekend, upwards of 25 million dollars in entry fees can be seen. Things are not slowing down in the slightest, experts predict that the global fantasy football industry could gross over 1 billion dollars by 2026.
Although fantasy Sports still enjoy their legal stance on being classified apart from gambling, not everyone agrees since large online casino brands are also getting involved. One of the better ways of deciding whether fantasy football is gambling or not is by looking at who is playing and who is winning. Recent research has shown that a lot of the top daily fantasy earners end up being professional poker players.
Can it become addictive?
Since fantasy football games are relatively new to the industry, there is not a lot of research to back up any of the claims about whether they can be addictive or not. A small study done recently found that college students who are regularly playing fantasy football games saw an increase in gambling-related issues. Also, a research paper showed that 70% of the people who played fantasy football did not make any money, and more than half of them didn’t care because they viewed it as entertainment and stated that it made sports more fun for them to watch. Whether or not you view fantasy football as gambling, here are some signs to show that it could be a problem for you. Other important things in your life, like your kids or partner, take a back seat. You are losing a lot of time and money to this pastime. You become moody or irritable, and your happiness starts depending on the outcome of your predictions within the game. And lastly, when you see that your personality changes during the fantasy football season, you might want to reconsider the fact that you’re saying it’s not addictive. If you are an avid casino goer or visit casinos like the Laimz casino and get the same feeling from fantasy football as you do when visiting the casino, you might want to rethink whether playing fantasy football is only entertainment.
Conclusions
Recently there has been a lot of effort made to come to the conclusion of whether fantasy sports are considered gambling or not. As things currently stand, fantasy sports are classified as games of skill rather than chance and therefore are avoided as classified as gambling. One thing is quite clear: fantasy sports is here to stay, and there are now even fantasy sports leagues being established, and large brand names are getting in behind this new movement. Even though fantasy football is not classified as gambling, many see it as such, and the fact that large amounts of money can be lost on an unpredictable outcome, one should approach it very carefully when placing wagers.
Image from: unsplash.com
