A simple Google search will tell you that fantasy football is “a competition in which participants select imaginary teams from among the players in a league and score points according to the actual performance of their players.” Notice how it says “competition,” which implies a more skills-based activity, rather than one based on chance. I believe our perception of fantasy football fosters the idea that it is skills-based. Our personal experiences plus TV shows, movies, and other media, have made fantasy football common in every household. People consider it to be harmless-- what could be so bad? It’s normal to be a superfan.
But as is the case with everything, haters gon’ hate. These Debbie-downers have started to frame fantasy football as gambling, which has changed the innocent perception it had, and has led some states to prohibit it. So to be fair, a simple Google search will tell you that to gamble is to “play games of chance for money.” The difference is that once the competition is called gambling, it’s no longer okay for people under 18 to participate and the idea of addiction starts to scare people.
It seems that, in order to properly categorize fantasy football as competition or gambling, we have to evaluate two things: chance vs. skill, and risk vs. no risk. For an activity to be gambling, it must be based on chance, and must have something of value on the line (money, expensive goods). For an activity to be a friendly competition, the outcome must be based on the skill of each competitor and does not need anything but bragging rights on the line.
So, is fantasy football based on skill or chance? If you asked me a year and a half ago, I would have said chance, but that was before I played fantasy football for myself. I used to think it was silly to spend so much time building lineups for a sporting event when anything could happen. Everyone has seen the bad teams upset the best teams, or the best player gets hurt and the backup becomes a star. How could anyone ever predict who will do well? But for the last two seasons, I have pretty much thrown myself into fantasy football and I love it. Now I spend time each week reading about players to add to my lineup because I have noticed that I do do better when I put more time into researching my draft picks. Maybe skill does have something to do with it.
Next, what’s on the line? We see TV commercials that lure us into daily fantasy leagues with big prizes and small entry fees, and it just seems like, “wow it would be cool to win that much money playing fantasy.” A lot of people are willing to throw five bucks in for a chance at one million-- that’s the average person, not the stereotypical gambler. This just shows that most people don’t consider it to be gambling. However, sometimes friends will bet money, valuables, or services on season-long leagues, which could be closer to what we consider gambling. But perhaps the most important point to make is that there are many games that are free, just for fun, with nothing on the line.
Well which is it… competition or gambling? In most cases, I feel it’s just competition. For example, average players like me, who play in one or two games per week just during football season, are not gamblers. In many cases, I invest $5 at the beginning of the season and continue to play with that same $5, losing it and winning it back, for the remainder of the 16 weeks. And I often play in free games against friends, just for fun. This type of fantasy football play does not warrant states to make it illegal. Of course, there are exceptions to anything. There are fantasy players who become addicted, and it begins to truly have adverse effects on their lives, whether it’s financial or otherwise. Those are the players who played with a lot on the line.
For what it’s worth, my answer is that not all fantasy play is gambling. When fantasy play is taken to the extreme, it becomes gambling, but someone who puts effort into their lineups (to overcome chance) and plays with little to no risk, is not a gambler. People should be free to play fantasy football at their own risk.
