New York Supreme Court decision exposes the Achilles’ heel of U.S. gaming law.

Taking it all around, the beleaguered Procurator of Judea actually got off lightly. The only question put to him was “what is truth?”. And he managed to avoid it. But today our jurists and lawmakers need to coherently answer the question: “what is chance?”. And this time they don’t get to wash their hands of the problem.

On Thursday, February 6th, ,the Supreme Court of Albany County, NY, ruled that the New York State legislature had no right to do what it did in 2016, namely legalize Daily Fantasy Sports by simply declaring it a game of skill, rather than chance. Court terminology in New York is a little different then the rest of the country. What the Empire State calls a Supreme Court is actually a lower court. Decisions at that level may be appealed to the appropriate division of the Appellate Court (intermediate level Court of Appeals) and then finally to the Court Of Appeal, which is New York’s name for the state Supreme Court.

There were procedural questions – the state constitution of New York, said the Court, requires such things be submitted to a popular referendum first. In fact the proper procedure would be to change the state constitution, as California did in order to allow Indian gaming.