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NY AG Schneiderman Discusses Insider Trading Probe Of DraftKings, FanDuel

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has launched an investigation into insider trading allegations against two major fantasy football companies.

He spoke about the probe to "CBS This Morning" Thursday.

Schneiderman's office is looking into whether employees at DraftKings and FanDuel have an unfair advantage at winning prizes using their companies' data.

Schneiderman said they are just beginning the inquiry into "the totally unregulated gambling venues."

"These are sites where more than 30 million people are playing on these sites -- billions of dollars are being bet on these games and we have no guarantee other than taking their word for it that employees there, friends of employees or relatives of employees aren't getting information -- data that gives them a competitive edge. We want the playing field to be level like it's supposed to be in the NFL."

WEB EXTRA: NYAG to FanDuel Letter | NYAG to DraftKings Letter

On Wednesday, FanDuel said it will permanently ban all employees from playing any daily fantasy sports for money and began an internal probe following reports a DraftKings employee may have had access to unfairly valuable data before winning $350,000 in a FanDuel contest.

FanDuel said it hired former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to evaluate its internal controls.

It is also creating an advisory board led by Michael Garcia, a lawyer who led the investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process then resigned from the FIFA ethics committee in protest over the handling of his findings.

On Monday, DraftKings and FanDuel posted statements on their websites saying nothing is more important to them than "the integrity of the games we offer to our customers."

"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," they said.

Schneiderman said so far his office has found no evidence of wrongdoing, but neither company has responded to his inquiry.

(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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