The popular fantasy football sites FanDuel and DraftKings have been under fire as of late after a DraftKings employee, Ethan Haskell, won $350,000 in a FanDuel fantasy football tournament on Oct 4.

  On Sept 27, it was discovered that Haskell posted information from DraftKings that showed their most commonly owned players for the week; prior to the teams being locked in.

  This suggests that Haskell knew what players were most commonly being played, thus giving him an advantage over other competitors.

  FanDuel released an official statement regarding the incident saying, “Both companies have strong policies in place to ensure that employees do not misuse any information at their disposal and strictly limit access to company data to only those employees who require it to do their jobs. Employees with access to this data are rigorously monitored by internal fraud control teams, and we have no evidence that anyone has misused it.”

  So did Haskell’s winnings come coincidentally less than a week after he allegedly posted the players percentages for the week before?

  Haskell also went on quite a winning streak playing fantasy baseball in August. According to an article in Larry Brown Sports, “Haskell won major points in 20 of 31 days in August playing big money MLB games on FanDuel.”

  Shortly after the incident went viral, DraftKings and FanDuel have temporarily banned their employees from participating in betting on fantasy sports amid allegations that they have been using insider information to win large jackpots.

  Hillsborough Community College student and FanDuel player Lucas Jose expressed his opinion saying, “I am not sure how comfortable I am playing against these employees. I mean if they know who all is being played, then they definitely have an unfair advantage over the rest of us.”

  Another HCC student and FanDuel player Cody Decker shares a similar opinion, “I feel a lot better knowing that the employees are no longer allowed to play; seeing as they can easily cheat knowing who the most commonly owned players are.”

  The scandal had negative effects on the companies including a drop in users, ban of advertisement by the NCAA during championships and a cease of operation in the state of Nevada.

  Florida could be the next to follow in Nevada’s footsteps and officials are considering a ban of both DraftKings and FanDuel in the state.

  The Nevada gaming regulators have ruled that the sites are in violation of a 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

  The daily fantasy sports sites are classified as skill based contests, but due to the recent incident it is being questioned whether or not it is skill based or if it is simply online gambling.

  If it is considered to be gambling then both FanDuel and DraftKings will be required to acquire a gambling license to continue operations.

  When asked if he would continue to play on FanDuel, Jose says, “Yeah, the employees are banned so there is no more cheating.” Decker agreed saying: “I will, but with less money.”

  Overall, because of one careless DraftKings employee leaking some classified data, it is possible that an insider trading scandal has been revealed in the world of daily fantasy sports. As a result, the government may have to come in and regulate both DraftKings and FanDuel just as they would a casino, which could cost both companies a portion of their future earnings.