Kansas fantasy sports bill gains House approval

ll to legalise fantasy sports in Kansas has won final legislative approval.

Representative Brett Hildabrand introduced HB 2155 in February, and the bill was approved 98-21 by the House before being approved 37-1 by the Senate.

The bill will now be sent to Governor Sam Brownback.

Most forms of gambling are illegal in Kansas, and current law bans fantasy sports that involve prize, chance and consideration, as they are an illegal lottery prohibited by Kansas criminal law.

The Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission’s Frequently Asked Questions page states that “chance predominates over skill in fantasy sports leagues”, while state law also considers lottery games to be determined by chance.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in an opinion published by Legal Sports Report in April: “In between games of chance and games of skill is a spectrum of enterprises that have a mixture of varying degrees of both skill and chance. A factual determination is required before a decision on a particular enterprise can be made, because, to our knowledge, no Kansas Court has determined, as a matter of law, that fantasy sports leagues are games of chance and are therefore lotteries.”

Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana and Washington are the only other US states yet to have officially legalised fantasy sports.