I can't imagine these companies will be allowed to exist in the wild west for much longer. They are either going to need some strong regulations or they are going to be killed politically. It makes me wonder if the media rush they both started at the beginning of this football season was a preemptive move of desperation to cash in as much as possible before the hammer came down.
Arguably they cheated the players of the other site... As the employees were (rightly) banned from playing the site they were employed by.
That said they acted on knowledge not everyone would have. Similar to inside trading, but not the same due the unregulated nature of these sites. I'm not exactly sure what laws that would bump up against, but definitely most important to these sites who are trying to build consumer trust.
This is just one of many scandals for DFS in the past weeks. DraftKings had to refund all MMA bets on Saturday because of a "data error" -- it was sketchy as hell.