Christie, Bush differ on government involvement in fantasy sports

Chris Christie and Jeb Bush clashed at Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate over a question involving fantasy sports.

While Bush said daily fantasy sites may be ripe for government regulation, Christie said the government should stay out of it.

{mosads}“Are we really talking about getting government involved in fantasy football?” the New Jersey governor said. “We have $19 trillion in debt, we have people out of work, we have ISIS and al Qaeda attacking us, and we’re talking about fantasy football?

“Enough on fantasy football. Let people play. Who cares?”

Christie offered the comments after Bush, Florida’s former governor, said sites such as DraftKings and FanDuel need to be addressed.

“I think this has become something that needs to be looked at in terms of regulation,” he said during the debate hosted by CNBC. “Effectively, it’s day trading without any regulation at all.”

Unlike a traditional fantasy sports league, which is played over the course of a season, the websites allow players to draft new virtual “teams” every day. Critics argue that is essentially gambling, while the sites say they offer “games of skill.”

Bush also alluded to allegations of impropriety in the industry that followed the revelation a DraftKings employee with access to player data had won $350,000 in a FanDuel contest.

“When you have insider information, which apparently has been the case, when people use that information, use big data to try to take advantage of it, there has to be some regulation,” he said. “If they can’t regulate themselves, then the NFL needs to look at moving away from them and there should be some regulation.”