New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie lambasted the moderators of Wednesday’s Republican debate for talking about fantasy football regulation instead of issues like foreign policy and the national debt on Wednesday.
"Are we really talking about getting government involved in fantasy football?" Christie asked. "Wait a second, we have $19 trillion in debt, people out of work, ISIS and al Qaeda attacking us and we're talking about fantasy football? Can we stop?"
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was asked about regulating fantasy sports websites. Bush indicated willing to enacting some regulations on the site, despite his general aversion to government intervention.
Fantasy sports sites FanDuel and DraftKings have been roiled by allegations that their employees have profited from insider information at the expense of regular customers.
Christie said let that regulators should leave fantasy sports alone.
"How about this? Let's get the government to do what it’s supposed to do: secure our borders, protect our people and support American values and American families," Christie said.
"Enough on fantasy football. Let people play, who cares?" Christie said.
It was not a good night for CNBC moderators Carl Quintanilla, John Harwood, and Rebecca Quick, who were criticized by many for asking unfair and irrelevant questions.
Transcript below:
CARL QUINTANILLA: Governor Bush, daily fantasy sports has become a phenomenon in this country. It will award billions in prize money this year. To play you have to assess your odds, wait for a situation that is out of your control. Isn't that the definition of federal government—
JEB BUSH: I'm 7-0 in my fantasy league. Gronkowski is still going strong. Marco is my quarterback, he was 18-19 last week. So I'm doing great, but we're not gambling. This is something that needs to be looked at in terms of regulation. Effectively, it is day trading. When you have insider information which is apparently the case where people use that information and use big data to try to take advantage of it, there has to be some regulation. If they can't regulate themselves, then the NFL needs to look at moving away from them. I have no clue if the federal government is the proper way to deal with that—my instinct is to say hell no, just anything about the federal government.
CHRIS CHRISTIE: Are we really talking about getting government involved in fantasy football? Wait a second, we have $19 trillion in debt, people out of work, ISIS and al Qaeda attacking us and we're talking about fantasy football? Can we stop?