The story of the case begins with Illinois residents Andrew Wu and Colin Dew-Becker who participated in a fantasy sports completion in April 2016. The competition was hosted by FanDuel and involved a $9 fee with a $100 wager. Dew-Becker was defeated in the contest and he invoked The Loss Recovery Act from 1819 to recover his funds.

What is the act all about?

The Loss Recovery Act provides the losing party of an illegal wager the opportunity to recover its lost funds. Since the act was invoked, it suggests that FanDuel’s contest for fantasy sports is gambling and must be considered illegal. The case was picked by the Illinois Supreme Court. On April 16, 2020, the court ruled that fantasy sport is a game of skill and not a game of chance. Therefore, it could not be classified as an illegal method of gambling.

Only Justice Lloyd Karmeier has dissented the opinion. Chief justice Anne Burke wrote the majority opinion which states, Because the outcomes of head-to-head DFS contests are predominately skill-based, we conclude that (Dew-Becker) was not engaged in ‘gambling’ with (Wu) as required… We determine here only that the DFS contest at issue, in this case, does not fall under the current legal definition of gambling.”

What else did the court suggest?

Justice Karmeier, who thinks argued that fantasy sports should be included as games of chance, history of full of examples of people disguising illegal activities as legal. He added that the ingenuity added to the DFS contents is a similar tactic that led the majority to believe that it is a game of skill when it is actually a game of chance.

The court upholds the legal status of fantasy sports contests hosted by FanDuel and similar companies. The five majority judges said that the state’s lawmakers can alter current regulations to manage these contests.