Are Fantasy Sports Considered Gambling?

Fantasy sports have long been a time for men and women alike to come together and share their love of sports. That being said, many leagues are just put together for the fun, or at least they were when they were first created. Now however, there are more leagues than ever that actually take bets, collect winnings and make for a great chance to have fun and earn a little extra spending money, but could that all change in the future? If it become classified as betting, yes.

But have fantasy sports moved to the realm of true gambling. Not yet according to the U.S. government. You may not know that there are not fantasy leagues in casinos, but there are now sites that allow you to create leagues online and compete against players from other countries for real money and prizes.

That being said, it is true that fantasy sports are starting to move toward the realm of actual gambling, which could be a big boon for many states if they could tax it. But as of now, it is not. Why? When playing the games…

• They have a real world component that depends on the outcomes of actual games that are happening.

• There is some level of skill or work that is required to get the desired outcome.

• There is no chance involved, there is no dealer or one person that helps to run the game, there is no one person or the house that controls everything, instead, there are a league of people that come together willingly.

There are a few opportunities in which a casino could capitalize on fantasy sports but it would require that the casino or site use sports that are not actually occurring rather than the actual season. This would make it seem like fantasy sports without it having to be an actual sports team or have to be based on what was happening from week to week.

It is not all that far of a leap from traditional fantasy sports and fantasy sports leagues to actual gambling but there would be plenty of things that would need to be considered. In most cases, it is going to be considered a game of skill rather than what would be considered a game of chance.

While most casinos have yet to create any sort of game that would even rival fantasy gaming, they are starting to move toward games and attractions that are not all that traditional. It is going to be a challenge for any casino to really capture the feeling and the camaraderie that comes with a large fantasy sports leagues.

Instead, casinos online are moving to a structure emphasizing socialization. They are following the fantasy sport’s lead into social slot machines and other games where you play together. Of course, there are plenty of chances for its status to change, especially in the U.S. But as of now most people, are either still debating if betting on the outcomes of digital games is actually gambling, or not. As popularity increases one thing is for sure, real money fantasy sports are not going anywhere soon.