Daily Fantasy Sports May Soon Be Coming Back To New York State

Daily fantasy sports sites may soon resume operations in New York: Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a state law legalizing the multibillion-dollar industry.

Fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel suspended operations earlier this year, after the state's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, sued them for violating state law.

Schneiderman said that placing bets on fantasy sports was essentially gambling, which is illegal in New York.

The sites argued they were games of skill, and petitioned the state Legislature to pass a bill that says as much. And on Wednesday, that bill was signed into law.

Now, NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports, DraftKings and FanDuel will be regulated by the New York State Gaming Commission. Tax revenue from fantasy sports is supposed to fund education in the state, he says.

"Virginia passed a similar law legalizing fantasy sports in March, but the industry is still under investigation in other states," Hansi reports. "And New York's state attorney general says he'll keep looking into claims of 'false advertising and consumer fraud for past misconduct.' "

New York is believed to be the second-largest market for daily fantasy sports, after California, as NPR's Joel Rose has previously reported.

In a statement, the CEO of DraftKings said he and his company "look forward to welcoming New Yorkers back."

FanDuel's CEO thanked the supporters of the industry in a letter to the site's New York users. "More than 110,000 letters and nearly 3,000 calls were made directly to lawmakers from sports fans around the state," Nigel Eccles wrote. "Thank you for making this happen."