Major US Leagues Urge Lifetime Betting Bans for Bettors Who Threaten Athletes

Five major professional sports leagues and their players associations sent a joint letter to gambling regulators in 35 states and the District of Columbia requesting permanent revocation of betting privileges for anyone verified to have harassed or threatened athletes, coaches, officials, team personnel or their families.

The NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS cited the escalating threat facing professional players, coaches, and officials from sports bettors. The expansion of legal, state-regulated sports betting has introduced negative consequences, including threatening messages directed at players and families after lost wagers, according to reporting by Yogonet International. Threatening the safety of an athlete or their family members over a sports bet crosses a bright ethical and criminal line and it is entirely unacceptable, the letter states.

Rising Harassment and Existing State Measures

Harassment of athletes by bettors has risen since the Supreme Court’s 2018 PASPA decision. Former Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers received threats from a bettor living overseas. California bettor Benjamin “Parlay” Patz sent messages to four Tampa Bay Rays players threatening to sever their necks and targeted more than 300 accounts belonging to professional and college athletes. Patz pleaded guilty in 2021 to transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce; a judge ordered mental health treatment and a gambling ban rather than prison time.

In December 2024, then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin held the first federal hearing on sports betting in six years. He noted that former North Carolina center Armando Bacot received more than 100 threats on social media after missing the over on his rebound total. A state legislator reported that a college football kicker in his state faced a barrage of threats after missing a field goal. The NCAA did not sign the letter, though the leagues urged states to extend bans to cover threats against amateur athletes. Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana and Wyoming already exclude bad actors from licensed sportsbooks and mobile applications.

The Path Ahead for Uniform Standards

The leagues called on all state gaming commissions and state policymakers to promptly adopt uniform rules and legislative guardrails to help address this behavior. They proposed a standardized, cross-operator reporting system allowing players, unions and leagues to securely transmit verified evidence of threats to state regulators. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the NBA could join a multi-league coalition on betting-related issues and that he might support a federal sports betting czar. Joe Maloney, president of the Sports Betting Alliance whose members include DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics and Bet365, said: “We welcome efforts by leagues, players and regulators to build on that work and make clear that harassment has no place in sports.”

The coordinated request sets clear expectations for regulators to align exclusions nationwide. Operators will face demands to strengthen identification tools and information-sharing protocols. Federal attention from figures such as Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell on related integrity matters could shape whether uniform guardrails emerge promptly or remain fragmented across jurisdictions.

Reporting: Yogonet International

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