The Fantasy Sports Trade Association and its members which include ESPN and Yahoo, are backing legislation that would make daily fantasy games legal in Illinois. It would also characterize the contests as games of skill.
The trade group says more than 2 million Illinois residents participate in fantasy contests, some with cash prizes; Attorney General Lisa Madian says that's illegal gambling.
But Peter Schoenke, the group's chairman, says studies show that there's more involved to winning than just leaving it up to fate.
"There's a group of people that win more regularly. They just have innate abilities to study players, they do more homework, they do more research. They apply skill to the games and they win more."
One Chicago-based company, SideLeague, says it has stopped offering contests in Illinois. But its co-founder says SideLeague would start offering them again, if Illinois passes the legislation to regulate daily fantasy sports.