Fantasy Sports Wagering Legal?

Hi all, because I'm a huge nerd I participate in several fantasy football and baseball leagues. All with friends, and for nominal sums of money just to make it interesting. Frankly the smack talking if you win or lose is the best part, not the cash. Anyway, lately there have been several internet based sites offering numerous fantasy games where you can play strangers for real money. The one I'm most familiar with is fanduel.com, but I'm sure there are others. You can play season long games or games as short as one day in duration. For real cash apparently. I've never actually done it, nor have any of my fellow nerdlingers. But I'm curious about a couple of things and thought the good people of the forum might be able to help.

Q: How is this legal in the US?..you are clearly wagering your own money against other players.
Q: How would you deposit or withdraw funds as a US based player?...always an issue with online gaming.
Q: Does anyone have any experience with fanduel...or any other site? Good or Bad?

I could probably think up a dozen more questions/issues but lets start there. They are heavily promoting these sites on the radio and online sports sites I read. Every time I hear an ad for them I wonder hmmmm......

Yes it is explicitly legal because it is game of skill. It was actually codified as legal by the same law that made online poker illegal.

see

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2012/09/19/should-gambling-on-fantasy-football-be-legal/

and

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.04411:

There is a lawsuit in IL that questions whether the daily fantasy sports are legal. The season long ones are for sure as they fall under a game of skill, the daily/weekly contests are debatable.

god forbid that someone be might engaged in an illegal activity such as fantasy baseball.....let make sure this new variation of the fantasy leagues is 100% legal. The idea of having fun while breaking the law is repulsive.

Quote: Pokeraddict

There is a lawsuit in IL that questions whether the daily fantasy sports are legal. The season long ones are for sure as they fall under a game of skill, the daily/weekly contests are debatable.

Do you have a link or story about this I could see?

For the OP - I've used fanduel and it's fine, just not my sort of thing. I've deposited and withdrawn with no problem. I think I'm down like $8. I have $2 left sitting in there that I need to lose. Once again, not really my thing. The players on there are pretty good, no easy wins like at some online poker sites.

I've played fan duel and they use PayPal to deposit and withdraw

Thanks for the helpful replies....I'm not even sure I'm interested in doing it. Was just curious if any members had a good or bad experience. As for the legality, I personally couldn't give a flying fig. But was curious as to any issues anyone might know of. Thanks again.

I made a 25$ deposit for fun and cashed out $75 so I did well. But it takes way more time than you think to research. You need to research pitching/hitting matchups every day. On top of that you need to research starting lineups to see if the players you choose are playing. Most lineups are made available a few hours before each game so you'll want to make are that you don't select any guys sitting on the bench that day. And then the weather... You'll need to look at weather maps to make sure your game won't get cancelled for weather. If you select a guy and his game is cancelled then you get 0 points. Seems like this month we've had at least one game postponed everyday. Fan duel is certainly challenging and fun, but I just don't have enough time to do all the research needed to win