Fanta$y Football, Legal Fun or Gambling Habit?

I regularly have conversions with friends over fantasy football outcomes, who has the better team, or most importantly who is at the top of the standings and therefore closest to the cash prize. This kind of conversation is not considered odd at all these days, the practice of betting on fantasy leagues has been around ever since I can remember and when I read a Forbes article regarding the subject of fantasy football as gambling I started to question how much online leagues could actually be classified as gambling. 


Article link here

The article explains the legality of fantasy football "Fantasy sports are considered games of skill-not chance-if they can be won by successfully utilizing superior knowledge of players involved. The Act adds that the game in question cannot have a prize that is determined by the number of players or amounts paid (think betting odds on game picks), but rather is established in advance of the game's start." 

So the discussion on if fantasy football should be legal comes to down if the game is based on skill. I would argue that there is very little skill involved in assembling a team and choosing a starting line up. The mindset is simple; this guy is going to hopefully going to play with I'll put him in. 

Even if the argument was made that skill is the predominant factor in winning, it is still a largely young demographic that is participating and therefore putting money on the line and it advertised as a fun distraction to youths. This raises some ethically questions, kids are told that something largely based on chance is determined by skill and allowed to gamble on it as a result. Gaming laws are harsh unless they provide extra revenue like in the case of state run lotteries or in this case, taxes from fantasy football websites. " Estimates vary, but fantasy sports are thought to have an annual economic impact in the neighborhood of $4 billion (Forbes)." So the nature of gambling laws in this country is clearly skewed to more lenient to institutions that pay taxes, not ones that are necessarily in the best interest of public well being.