One day after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan declared daily fantasy sports illegal in that state, DFS sites DraftKings and FanDuel filed separate lawsuits seeking to nullify her action.
Madigan declared in a Dec. 23 opinion that daily fantasy sports are considered illegal gambling under Illinois law. Government officials in New York and Nevada have taken similar steps in recent months to ban daily fantasy sports sites from operating in their states. In addition, residents in a handful of other states are ineligible for cash prizes in games on DFS sites.
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According to ESPN, the DraftKings suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago claims that the attorney general's move "has set off a chain of events that — if unchecked — will unjustly destroy a legitimate industry."
The FanDuel suit was filed in Sangamon County, home to the state capital of Springfield. It asks the court to "confirm that fantasy sports are lawful under current law and give clarity to the millions of fantasy sports players in Illinois."
A representative for Madigan would not comment on the lawsuits to either ESPN or The Associated Press.
The DraftKings filing estimates Illinois accounts for about 10 percent of DFS participants.