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Supreme Court justices rule against teacher, declare fantasy sports betting a game of skill

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Illinois

A four-year legal battle that pitted a suburban teacher against her employer ended Thursday when the Illinois Supreme Court sided with the school district, ruling the teacher was not entitled to all of her paid sick leave because she gave birth just before summer break and had ample time to recover before her job resumed.

The ruling, which sets a precedent for most of the state’s public school teachers, held that Wood Dale District 7 doesn’t have to let teachers carry over benefits to the new school year for births that occurred during or right before summer break. Nothing precludes teachers, however, from taking unpaid time off through the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.

In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Anne Burke wrote that a measure in the Illinois School Code granting 30 days of paid sick leave to male and female teachers for “birth, adoption, or placement for adoption” must be used immediately.

The ruling is here.

* Capitol News Illinois…

A statute dating back to the early 1800s cannot be applied to daily fantasy sports betting, Illinois’ highest court ruled Thursday. Fantasy sports, the court ruled, are games dominated by skill, not by chance.

In April 2016, Colin Dew-Becker and Andrew Wu competed in a fantasy NBA contest through the website FanDuel. They each paid $109 — a $100 wager and $9 fee to the company. Wu’s team scored almost double the points Dew-Becker’s team did, making him the winner.

Dew-Becker filed a lawsuit three days later to recover his bet. Under a centuries-old Illinois law called the Loss Recovery Act — passed in 1819, one year after Illinois became a state and 40 years before the Civil War — those on the losing end of an illegal wager have a legal avenue to get their money back.

In order for that to be a possibility, however, that money had to be lost while gambling. The state Supreme Court, after consulting recently-published peer-reviewed studies, ruled that while nothing in the act’s language omits internet contests from its purview, daily fantasy sports bets do not fit the definition of gambling as dictated by law.

Read the rest for Justice Karmeier’s dissent, or read the opinion.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 1:47 pm

Comments

Interesting, but makes some sense. If it were truly random who would win in sports, that would seem to be gambling. But we know some teams are much more likely to do better than others.

But what about a game like Blackjack or Poker? Surely those are also games of skill, and yet almost anyone would say that you’re gambling when placing bets on the game.

I guess I’d have to read the original opinion for more detail.

Comment by Techie Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 1:54 pm
Note to self: do not let Colin Dew-Becker into office NCAA pool next year

Comment by Stu Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 2:01 pm
==Dew-Becker filed a lawsuit three days later to recover his bet ==

That sound like something a guy named “Colin” would do. Sounds like the kind of fellow that demands best “5 out of 7” when he loses the first game of rock-paper-scissors.

Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 2:05 pm
And in other Illinois Supreme Court news, the third districts’ McDade puts up another L.

Comment by Winderweezle Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 2:16 pm
While I accept the rationale of this Illinois Supreme Court opinion denying the new mother paid time off due to the timing of her child’s birth and the express terms of the regulations and contract around that, it is really tragic to me that even mothers who give birth earlier in the year only get 30 days off of paid sick leave under the Illinois School Code. I was able to be home for 3 months after my child’s birth (some of that time paid) and it barely felt like enough time to bond with the child and personally recover from the emotional and physical strain of my difficult pregnancy and birth.

This country needs to do more to help working families. It’s very very hard to stay afloat in this economy without a two-income household, but at the same time it’s very very hard to be a working parent.

If right-wingers want my support in passing legislation reducing access to abortion, they can start by offering support for more generous and pro-family paid leave policies for new moms.

Comment by hisgirlfriday Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 2:17 pm
I read the headline of the post as all one thought, and was really curious about this case…

Comment by Red Raider Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 2:18 pm
I’m not sure I ever showed skill in my rotisserie baseball league. I only won three times in 25 years. I shouldn’t have traded Matt Williams just before the ‘90 season.

Comment by Proud Sucker Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 2:20 pm
The dissent is logically correct.
Except that the game can be influenced while it is ongoing in the old-fashioned way — by fixing it,
(Which is one of the reasons why sports betting should have stayed illegal, in my view.)

Comment by Keyrock Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 2:22 pm
Karmeier’s dissent is exactly right, the Supreme Court’s change in reasoning just legalized a lot of games that had previously been recognized as gambling.

Comment by Simply anon Friday, Apr 17, 20 @ 3:09 pm