FanDuel Hawaii: No Book, No DFS, One Dead-Letter Bill

FanDuel Hawaii has never had a sportsbook, a casino, or even a legal daily fantasy contest to point to — Hawaii is one of only two US states with zero legal gambling of any kind. What makes Hawaii's page different from Utah's is the trail of near-misses behind it: a decade of bills that keep dying in committee, a 2016 cease-and-desist that actually reached FanDuel by name, and a 2026 session that ended with lawmakers amending their own sports-betting bill to take effect in the year 3000.

Legal status in Hawaii

Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 712, Part IV bans gambling with almost no exceptions. Section 712-1223 makes simple play a petty misdemeanor, while Section 712-1222 — "promoting gambling in the second degree," the charge aimed at anyone running or profiting from a game rather than playing one — was bumped up by Act 111 in 2022 from a lesser offense to a class C felony. Section 712-1231 carves out a narrow affirmative defense for purely social, non-commercial play with no house cut, which does not cover a licensed or for-profit operation. Hawaii has no federally recognized tribal land under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, so unlike most other restricted states on this site, there is no tribal-casino side door either. FanDuel's own paid daily fantasy contests ran in Hawaii until 2016, when the state Attorney General's office issued an opinion that pick-your-lineup fantasy sports meet the statute's definition of gambling; the City and County of Honolulu's prosecuting attorney followed up by directly asking FanDuel and DraftKings to stop taking entries from Oahu residents. Neither company fought it in court — both simply geoblocked the state. The 2026 legislature came closer than any prior session: House Bill 2570, a six-operator online-only sports betting framework with a 15% tax on gross gaming revenue and a $500,000 license fee, cleared the House Economic Development & Technology Committee in February despite 41 witnesses testifying against it to 11 in favor. Lawmakers then amended the bill to push its effective date out to July 1 of the year 3000 — a procedural move that keeps the bill technically alive while killing it for this decade — and the companion Senate measure, SB 3303, stalled in the Judiciary Committee in April 2026. Neither had reached a floor vote or the governor's desk as of this writing.

State gambling authority: None. Hawaii has never created a gaming commission or lottery board because it has never legalized anything for one to oversee. The only state authority to weigh in on FanDuel specifically is the Attorney General's office, via its 2016 daily fantasy sports opinion, and the Honolulu prosecuting attorney's office that acted on it.

FanDuel Hawaii is a page about a losing streak. Hawaii and Utah are the only two US states with zero legal gambling of any kind — no lottery, no casino, no sportsbook — but where Utah’s ban is a flat constitutional wall, Hawaii’s has always looked theoretically closer to cracking. Bills get filed almost every session. Committees hold hearings. None of it has ever turned into a FanDuel product a Hawaii resident can actually open, and 2026’s attempt ended in one of the stranger outcomes this site has documented: a bill that technically survived by being amended to do nothing until the year 3000.

A Decade of Bills That Don’t Pass

Hawaii lawmakers have introduced some version of a sports-betting or daily-fantasy legalization bill in nearly every session since national sports betting expanded after 2018, and nearly all of them have died quietly in committee. A 2025 attempt collapsed when a conference committee couldn’t reconcile differing House and Senate drafts. House Bill 2570 made it further than any before it in the 2026 session — a six-operator, online-only framework with a 15% tax on gross gaming revenue and a $500,000 license fee that cleared the House Economic Development & Technology Committee in February, despite 41 people and organizations testifying against it against 11 in favor.

The year 3000 amendment: after clearing committee, HB 2570 was amended to push its own effective date out to July 1, 3000. That keeps the bill alive on paper for future sessions to build on, while making certain it changes nothing for anyone reading this page today. The Senate companion, SB 3303, stalled separately in the Judiciary Committee that April.

Is FanDuel Legal in Hawaii?

No, on every product. The sportsbook has never had a licensing path to even apply through. The daily fantasy contests did run here once — until 2016, when the state Attorney General’s office concluded that pick-your-lineup fantasy sports fit the statute’s definition of gambling, and the City and County of Honolulu’s prosecuting attorney followed up by asking FanDuel and DraftKings directly to stop taking Oahu entries. FanDuel didn’t contest it in court; it simply turned the product off, and it has stayed off for roughly a decade.

How Safe Is FanDuel for Hawaii Players?

Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 712, Part IV sets real stakes for anyone who tried to run a game here — Section 712-1222, promoting gambling in the second degree, became a class C felony under 2022’s Act 111, aimed squarely at operators rather than players. Section 712-1223 treats simple participation as a petty misdemeanor, and Section 712-1231’s social-gambling defense only covers private, non-commercial games with no house cut — not a licensed platform. None of that is a FanDuel-specific risk; it is simply the legal backdrop for why no FanDuel product beyond Predicts operates in the state at all.

FanDuel Predicts Is the One Thing That Actually Works

FanDuel Predicts, the company’s federally regulated event-contracts product built on exchange infrastructure tied to CME Group, went live in all 50 states on January 15, 2026. Because it is regulated under federal commodities law rather than any state’s gambling statute, it offers sports-related contracts specifically in states — Hawaii among them — where FanDuel has no licensed sportsbook competing for the same bet. It is the same legal theory DraftKings uses for its own prediction-markets product in Hawaii, and the one FanDuel-branded thing a Hawaii resident can actually use today.

Who It Fits

Nobody in Hawaii gets a FanDuel sportsbook, casino, or paid fantasy contest, and HB 2570’s year-3000 effective date makes clear that isn’t changing soon. FanDuel Predicts is the honest exception — a federally regulated product, not a state-licensed one — and it’s worth treating as a different thing entirely from the sportsbook FanDuel runs in 24-plus other states. Anyone weighing it should treat it as entertainment, not income, and keep in mind that Hawaii’s own prosecutors have already shown they’ll act on fantasy-sports products they consider illegal gambling.

FanDuel Hawaii — Frequently Asked Questions

Is FanDuel legal in Hawaii?

No — not the sportsbook, which has never existed here, and not the daily fantasy contests, which FanDuel voluntarily shut off in Hawaii in 2016 after the state Attorney General's office found they met the legal definition of gambling. House Bill 2570 would have created Hawaii's first-ever licensed online sports betting market, but lawmakers amended it in 2026 to take effect in the year 3000, which is the legislature's way of tabling it without formally killing it.

Is FanDuel safe to use in Hawaii?

There is no licensed FanDuel sportsbook, casino, or DFS product live in Hawaii, so there is nothing for a Hawaii-based regulator to license, audit, or field a complaint about. FanDuel Predicts, the company's federally regulated prediction-markets product, is the one exception: it runs under CFTC oversight rather than any Hawaii statute, and is live statewide.

Is FanDuel legit, even with nothing operating in Hawaii?

As a company, yes. FanDuel is a Flutter Entertainment subsidiary with a real payout record across the 24-plus states where its sportsbook is actually licensed. That track record just has no bearing on Hawaii, which has never licensed a FanDuel product for anyone to use.

Can I still play FanDuel fantasy sports in Hawaii?

Not the paid, salary-cap contests. FanDuel pulled those out of Hawaii in 2016 after the Attorney General's opinion and a direct request from the Honolulu prosecuting attorney's office, and it has not reopened them since — unlike some states where DFS sits in an untested gray zone, Hawaii is one where FanDuel itself chose to stop rather than litigate.

What is FanDuel Predicts, and does it work in Hawaii?

It is FanDuel's event-contracts product, built on exchange infrastructure tied to CME Group and regulated federally rather than by any state gambling law. It went live nationwide on January 15, 2026, and — like DraftKings' competing CFTC-licensed product — offers sports contracts specifically in states, Hawaii included, where the company has no licensed sportsbook to compete with.

Will HB 2570 actually make FanDuel legal in Hawaii?

Not anytime soon. The bill cleared one House committee in February 2026 over heavy opposition, but lawmakers then amended its effective date to July 1, 3000 — a largely symbolic move that keeps the bill alive procedurally while guaranteeing it changes nothing this decade. Its Senate companion, SB 3303, stalled in the Judiciary Committee that April. Hawaii sports betting bills have died in committee or conference nearly every session since 2018; 2026's version got further than most and still didn't pass.

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