I went to the FanDuel rally and it was fine

"To me it's an issue of liberty vs. tyranny," says a man who wanted to go by the letter "D." He says he's a professional gambler, which includes trading futures and bitcoins.

"I honestly believe that the constitution guarantees people the right to do with their money as they see fit. And New York state and this asshole doesn't think so."

"This asshole" refers to Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general who declared Tuesday that daily fantasy sports constitute illegal gambling. FanDuel and DraftKings have both said they're going to fight the decision in court. FanDuel made a call to action, asking users to protest outside of Schneiderman's office building in Manhattan.

ESPN's Darren Rovell estimated that a "couple hundred" people turned up to protest Schneiderman's decision. To the naked eye, that looked about right. It was hardly a revolution, however, D not withstanding. Protesters were comprised of daily fantasy sports employees and people primarily decked out in Giants and Jets jerseys. They milled around behind metal barriers, waiting for the next chant to start when they weren't getting poked at by reporters.

There were a lot of signs, but none of them were homemade. Employees interspersed and passed out their own printed placards with phrases such as "SCHNEIDERMAN SHOULD FOCUS ON REAL PROBLEMS" (emphasis theirs), "GET YOUR LAWS OFF MY LINEUP" (playing off the pro-choice slogan "get your laws off my body," apparently) and "IF ONLY POLITICS WERE SKILL-BASED." A woman walked past the crowd saying "Who wants a sign?" then handed out cut-outs of Schneiderman's head reading "No Sports Fun New Yorkers." They also handed out donuts.

Not everyone was fighting for their rights, however.

"Most of the time, I don't even play for money, I play just to have fun," Desirae, a marketing company sales manager in a Bears jersey, told me. "All of my siblings and I are older and we've all moved on and moved out, and we're actually spread across the United States, so it's kind of a fun way for us to just compete with each other, right?"

Like Desirae, Ted only plays the one- and two-dollar games. He got into FanDuel because he says it enhances the experience of watching sports.

"A lot of us that grew up playing some sports, we're never going to be in the major leagues, so this is kind of a feeling that you're part of professional sports," he said. " I play a couple dollars, so I don't think of it as any -- the city hit me more for a parking ticket yesterday than any money I've even spent on FanDuel."

The one thing everyone at the rally really wants you to come away understanding is that daily fantasy sports are games of skill, which, daily fantasy sports sites and users argue, inherently makes it not "gambling." The catchiest chant is "Schneiderman, drop that filth, DFS is a game of skill!" That got boiled down to a more direct "Game of skill! Game of skill! Game of skill!" chant.

Even then, protesters admit there's luck involved. It's also true that, as SB Nation's Matt Ufford pointed out, a small minority of users take home the vast majority of the winnings using analytics and mathematical algorithms. There are ways to dramatically increase one's odds of winning, too, for anybody who has some knowledge and, yes, skill.

"Yeah sure, it's a form of gambling, yeah sure there's luck involved just like anything else," says Stephen Bennette, a psychologist. "Why isn't this allowed or going to be allowed in the future vs. buying a lottery ticket?

"It's all gambling, and he makes that decision for you and I don't think that's right."

D broadens the picture even further.

"I honestly believe that life is a gamble," he says. "And I honestly do believe that this is a game of skill. Obviously you can apply that to a lot of things that we're not allowed to access, such as online poker for instance."

The demarcation line between gambling and skill is bold and gray, in this case, and any actual debate can never end except where it began. Depending on how one reads into vague federal laws, daily fantasy sports could probably be defined as legal or illegal with equal feasibility.

Whether it matters is another question. Desirae could find other ways to stay in touch with her family, Ted would still have his fantasy sports friends and D never used daily fantasy sports as his primary means of income, anyway.

Bennette likes the low commitment needed to daily fantasy sports -- "It's just nice if you have nothing to do one afternoon and you want to spend an hour picking a team" -- and it'd be unfortunate for him to lose that sanctuary. But, he says, "It's not going to be traumatic to me if I can't play."

Tyranny can exist in degrees. Men who work in the attorney general's office stood outside the building in case any issues arose, but there was never any reason for concern. An investigator called it "just another day in New York."

FanDuel got a solid turnout in support of their cause. Then the rally ended promptly at 9 a.m. when everyone went to work, went home or otherwise went on with their lives.

Disclosure: SB Nation has a partnership with FanDuel to produce content about daily fantasy sports and advertise their games.