The New York Attorney General Letter to Fanduel

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...=tw-share&_r=1

and one to Draft Kings
http://www.legalsportsreport.com/wp-...r-10062015.pdf

Woah - what's the story on Matthew Boccio?

He works at Fan Duel and plays at Draft Kings under the name PetrGibbons.

https://dfsreport.com/6898/follow-up...nduel-mishaps/

Interestingly, Petr Gibbons has a Twitter account that Google finds a link to if you search for Matthew Boccio.

The tweet it links to is from 24 Oct 2014 and is:

'If I was the DCI, I would take a page out of Ace Rothstein's book and put these cheaters in the rafters with some binoculars.'

Yeah I found some more stuff and put it in the other thread.

Class action lawsuit on the way

there are cheating scumbags operating within the world of dfs no doubt. dfs security and privacy is a joke no doubt. dfs management and investors are involved in a drunken cash grab which has allowed for this incompetence no doubt.

That Said, If you have the LOVE, skills, bankroll and aptitude to win, you will win and keep on winning for a while, this comically small gold-rush is temporary. its not a degen scam you dodged, its a time sink with low payoff compared to other endeavors. opportunity cost.

shnooks get took ,crooks get rich

What you are doing here is a logical fallacy. You are assuming that which needs proving, i.e. "cheater," and "disadvantage." Those words are conclusory, e.g. you are assuming that the cheater cheated. What I see is a crowd of people chanting "cheater, cheater," without actually stating what law or rule was broken.

What happened here was an employee gained access to information and used it for his own account, i.e. use of proprietary information. However, that happens all the time in our society (irrespective of an employment agreement), and not all of it is actionable. In fact, gaining access to, and using private information (in various contexts) could properly be considered a skill, and someone might be considered an expert at it. E.g. the concept of a private investigator.

If the employee was instructed to not use the information, the employee should be fired, for breach of duty or dishonesty or whatever. But that is a different subject than whether there is any social mechanism in place to enforce a subsequent redistribution of wealth. It is my informed opinion that an initial requirement would be a determination that a crime was actually committed.

Just what the lawyer ordered.

@Gzesh or any other actual lawyer, are the sites compelled to respond to the NYAG or can they plead the 5th and tell them to pound sand?

it doesnt matter if what this guy did was against the law or not, many of you seem to be missing the big picture here...

DFS are on borrowed time, this only speeds up the process.

- when the UIGEA went into effect, it left a loophole for DFS.
- that has become a multi billion dollar cash cow with basically 2 players.
- since DK and FD couldnt keep their houses in order you get this mess.
- this turns into Jon Doe "realizing" he's been cheated (whether or not the info was used is inconsequential, because he feels he was cheated, he never realized he had no chance regardless)
- a whole lot of Jon Doe's now start writing/calling their senetors/congressmen with complaints about being cheated
- new laws get passed

- goose that lays golden eggs is killed
- DFS = internet poker

they probably had a year or 2 with how slow our government works. they might be lucky to get through next baseball season now.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/283894536/...FanDuel-Letter

The bottom of the letter says it's a "limited initial inquiry'' I don't think they've been subpoenaed yet.

"18 U.S. Code § 1028 - Fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents, authentication features, and information


Whoever, in a circumstance described in subsection (c) of this section—
... (7)
knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, or in connection with, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable State or local law; or

(c)The circumstance referred to in subsection (a) of this section is that—
... (3)either—
(A)
the production, transfer, possession, or use prohibited by this section is in or affects interstate or foreign commerce, including the transfer of a document by electronic means; or
(B)
the means of identification, identification document, false identification document, or document-making implement is transported in the mail in the course of the production, transfer, possession, or use prohibited by this section.

...

(7) the term “means of identification” means any name or number that may be used, alone or in conjunction with any other information, to identify a specific individual, including any—
...
(C) unique electronic identification number, address, or routing code; or
(D) telecommunication identifying information or access device (as defined in section 1029(e));
"


So, in other words, if the employee committed theft at a felony level, and if what he stole included the means to identify specific individuals, he gets the stainless steel bracelet award.

In September Draftkings was questioned by the Massachusetts AG. Rather than draw a line in the sand DK brought everything they had to AG and asked for legal opinion on every aspect of operation. Seems like the best approach to open doors if you aren't doing anything wrong.

Interesting instead of focusing on legality of fantasy sport betting, the Mass AG had concerns of predatory practice of debt collection and offering of credit. (Not sure what causes that concern)

Wow. What an eye opening episode this has been. I had a working knowledge of fantasy football. The unwanted spotlight of this fiasco shined brightly on all the crevices that the owners like draft kings and fan duel wanted to keep in the dark and hidden. I never really got into fantasy football because it was more ev to just bet on the games thru a sports book.

You have to love the commercial that is in the front and center of fantasy footballs marketing push. The guy who had a big score crows that the only reason he did it is because other people didn't play. One can't turn on the Tv or read a sports illustrated magazine or open a newspaper without being over loaded with ads and hawking from fantasy sports, primarily Fan Duel ad Draft Kings. Their main marketing ploy of I won because they didn't play is brilliant but highly misleading since currently 70 million plus usa residents are indeed playing.

I never understood how poker in the USA was only legalized in 3 states while fantasy football was legal in 45 states. I didn't know that sports leagues like major league baseball and the nba lobbied for fantasy sports. Lol at fantasy sports being a skill game. People don't realize what long odds they are up against though this fiasco has shed the light on that particular issue. These million dollar tournaments fantasy holds are won by people who throw multiple entries in a million dollar entry. The average honest sports bettor that places one bet has little hope as he doesn't realize that out of the millions who bet, a ton will have their bet counterfeited before the tournament even starts if their entry is the same as the majority of other bets. How many people are really aware of this?

The fact that ole Ethan had the knowledge of what other people picked is huge for this simple reason. He was able to pick high ev players and submit tickets that where unique from the rest of the stampeding herd. I am sure the average fantasy bettor was unaware of all the multiple entries being placed by single individuals also. A person has a much better chance winning in poker then he does against millions who have the same bet and are out of the running to win a tournament before it starts. Ty Ethan for shedding the light on what a huge sham fantasy football is thru your actions.

What I post here should be the end of this "scandal" :

Fanduel has a contest that locks Thursday night where percent ownerships for players all weekend can be publicly obtained. ( The only difference is that Thursday players are used.). Using these numbers on fanduel and correcting for the Thursday games would be more accurate than using information from Draftkings.

Hardly.

it's not important what really happened or what the DFS sites claim what happened. it's about the customers and the trust. every one was told "fair and clean", "'murican company" ... "100% legal and safe".

and even if the customers ignore or forget this story soon, casino lobbyists (who want to regulate/close the market) have now a good foundation, to build their campaign on.

is it a UB-like scandal? not even close, but DFS was heading towards a black friday-ish situation anyway and this story seems to speed things up

I agree with everything you said other then not even being close to ub like scandal when in fact it mirrors it. Being able to see everyones pick in term of percentages and submitting a unique ticket gives him a humongous advantage and to employees and makes his graph look like the one shown by players of the ub scandal.

1 question before agreeing you just ended the "scandal":

What about the MLB and NBA with 1 day tournaments? He crushed MLB in August with a statistical sample that was borderline NioNio territory.

Go debate a strawman all you want to, but I do not think my posting has accused anyone of committing a crime, under whatever criminal statutes might apply, wherever the activity took place.

Your "informed opinion" notwithstanding, describing someone who was misappropriating private information, from both his employer and from whoever submitted the purloined picks, then using that information for his own private benefit in some game against yet another set of folks on another site, as "cheating" seems appropriate on several levels.

Taking something that is not yours to take, just because it was sitting exposed and you could use it to your advantage, seems a likely element of proof under some laws against "cheating", I haven't looked into that because I was speaking to a different topic.

I think you are looking to debate criminal law, and the elements which need proof to obtain a conviction. Fine, have at it ..... but have that debate somewhere else, with someone who is talking about that topic. Your logic seems to have veered off course a bit.

Can anyone run a legal business in the gambling world? I guess I should say ethical.

Um, all I am and have been saying is: (1) The only REAL issue here is how to get the money back from this SOB. (2) Calling him names and comparing him to Ivan Boesky doesn't work.

Lineups were not changed after the games started (that would be the only thing I would consider a scandal big enough to shut down the sites.).

There currently are no laws about using information obtained from working at draftkings to play on another site...any percent ownership information he could have gottenworking at dk for use on fanduel could be estimated better by a computer simulation (since fanduel has slightly different pricing and rules...).

I would be more concerned if these employees had access to looking at who the top players on the site were using for the nite's game but I don't think that rises to "major scandal" status.

I think most of the severity of the story is fanned by journalists with an agenda. Journalist with an anti-business agenda and lobbyists for the casino industry come to mind. (99 percent of whom have never played dfs in their lives )

The dfs site need to clean up some of these practices with regards to their employers. But looking at the merits of just the nfl story the knowledge of draftkings ownership percentages(if it occurred) would help very little.

Not sure what the Bureau Chief of the Division of Economic Justice, Internet Division has as authority under NY law, I never have practiced in NY.

It seems especially odd for a Letter to FanDuel to cite press reports of some FanDuel employee activity; have there been ANY reports like that ?

The inquiry topics will eventually be asked in some investigation, whether cooperation or a response, within a week's time no less, to these specific Letters is feasible, wise or subject to compulsion, I have no idea.

Maybe some NY attorney can take a stab at this ? DraftKings employs excellent counsel for such matters, no doubt their response will be public in due course.

(As a general matter, a person in the US can invoke a Fifth Amendment right to almost every variety of question, whether it is appropriate or wise to do so is a different issue.)

Um, the USA Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. But:

"In October 2004, [David] Nosal voluntarily resigned from Korn/Ferry International, a major executive search firm headquartered near San Francisco. He departed with confidential business data from Korn/Ferry’s internal database of executive candidates. When it discovered Nosal’s theft, the government indicted him for violating the CFAA, the Economic Espionage Act, and other federal laws. The district court eventually dismissed the CFAA counts against Nosal, and the government appealed.

In United States v. Nosal, 676 F.3d 854 (9th Cir. 2012), the 9th Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the CFAA counts against Nosal. In a colorful opinion by Judge Alex Kozinski, the court held that the CFAA does not cover an employee who merely misuses an employer’s information to which he otherwise has legitimate access."

PROBABLY TIME TO AMEND THE ACT.