US Sports Leagues Submit Joint Memo Seeking Lifetime Bans on Bettors Who Harass Athletes
US leagues including NFL and NBA sent a Sept. 15 memo to 35 state regulators urging lifetime bans for bettors who harass or threaten athletes. The proposal includes a standardized threat-reporting platform and extends to amateur athletes and staff. It arrives amid documented post-2018 incidents and pending federal legislation.
SCCG Take — Regulators should treat the memo as a prompt to align enforcement standards and mandate operator data-sharing protocols that reduce athlete risk while preserving betting liquidity.
Major US professional sports leagues and their player unions have sent a memo dated 15 September to 35 state gaming authorities, calling for mandatory lifetime bans on individuals who abusively harass or threaten professional athletes. The document also urges parallel measures covering amateur athletes, coaches, officials, and team personnel. Signatories include the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, and MLS.
“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 leagues wrote in the statement. The move arrives ahead of the US Sports Equinox on 26 October, when the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB will all hold games on the same day.
Persistent Incidents Since PASPA Repeal
Harassment of athletes by bettors has risen since the Supreme Court’s PASPA decision in 2018. One stark example involved Benjamin “Parlay” Patz, who roughly 15 months after the ruling sent explicit threats to four members of the Tampa Bay Rays 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 gambling abstinence but imposed no prison time.
At a December 2024 Senate hearing, then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin cited North Carolina center Armando Bacot receiving more than 100 social media threats after missing the over on his rebound total in a March Madness game. Similar concerns drew extended discussion at a July session of the National Council of Legislators From Gaming States.
Proposed Tools and Industry Alignment
The memo advocates creation of a standardised, cross-operator reporting platform enabling secure transmission of verified threat evidence to regulators. Joe Maloney, president of the Sports Betting Alliance representing operators including DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, and Bet365, said its members are investing in tools to identify bad actors and share information with leagues. “We welcome efforts by leagues, players and regulators to build on that work and make clear that harassment has no place in sports,” Maloney told iGaming Business.
State regulators now hold concrete proposals that tie directly to documented patterns of abuse. How quickly and uniformly those proposals are enacted will determine whether the memo produces enforceable deterrents or remains an advisory statement.
Reporting: iGaming Business (iGB)
Generated by SCCG’s automated editorial system from published source reporting. SCCG Management holds editorial responsibility.
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