If you live in the U.S. and watch any sports on TV then you get blitzed with ads for FanDuel and DraftKings, daily fantasy sports betting sites.

It's been nagging me for some time as to how this activity can be legal in the U.S. when online poker is not (except in 3 states -- Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware). So today I did a little googling on the subject.

Here are a couple of interesting articles:

http://time.com/money/4029443/fantasy-sports-betting-legal/
http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2015/05/07/3648832/daily-fantasy-sports-gambling/

I also followed some of the links in those articles to see other interesting articles.

The net argument for daily fantasy sports betting being legal appears to be that fantasy sports are specifically carved out in the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA), the law that led, I believe, to Black Friday in the online poker world. But in 2006 when UIGEA was passed, fantasy sports leagues covered much longer than a day, usually an entire season. Lawmakers at the time didn't envision or anticipate the phenomenon of daily fantasy sports betting that is now sweeping the nation and growing at enormous triple digit rates. And in which, of course, players can gamble (yes, gamble) daily and thus win or lose a lot of money quickly.

Every time I see a FanDuel or DraftKings ad it reminds me of a time when Pokerstars and Full Tilt ads were commonplace on U.S. television. All to eventually have the rug pulled out from under online poker with Black Friday.

But if you read the above articles you'll find a major difference. In daily fantasy sports betting the professional leagues themselves, and other big time and well respected entities, are investing in sites like FanDuel and DraftKings. Politics being what it is (owned by money and driven by influence) this gives those sites, and the whole industry, more staying power than online poker had in 2011.

However, it's reasonable to expect daily fantasy sports betting to still get a lot of scrutiny given the constant advertising. You can't live in the U.S. and watch any sports on TV without having it pushed in your face constantly that you, too, could be a fantasy sports millionaire.

So it's impossible for any person with a modicum of intellect (which unfortunately doesn't include many politicians) to not also think "well, if that's legal then why isn't direct sports betting legal? and other online gambling? and online poker?"

Surely this daily fantasy sports phenomenon will end in one of three ways: 1) it goes the way of online poker and has its own Black Day (but I doubt it given the vested interests of sports leagues and other "respectable" investors), or 2) it expedites online poker becoming legal in all the U.S. as it's simply ridiculous to argue that fantasy sports is more of a "skill game" than poker, or 3) the hypocrisy of the current situation continues forever. I wouldn't rule 1 or 3 out entirely but I'll put my money on 2.