Sports Leagues Call for Lifetime Betting Bans on Harassers in Letter to 35 States

The NFL, MLB, MLS, NBA and NHL, together with their players’ associations, sent a Sept. 15 letter to gambling regulators in 35 states and Washington, D.C. The letter warns of an escalating threat of betting-related harassment and violent threats directed at athletes, coaches, officials, team personnel and their families.

“Too often, individuals who lose sports bets direct threatening and harassing messages toward players, coaches, and their families via social media and in-person interactions,” the groups wrote. They propose three actions: mandatory lifetime bans for verified offenders, a cross-operator framework for leagues and teams to report threats to regulators and law enforcement, and requirements for sportsbooks to monitor, flag and ban linked accounts.

“The safety and well-being of players, coaches, officials and their families must always come before a wager,” the letter said. The groups pointed to Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana and Wyoming, which have implemented anti-harassment provisions. Operators such as BetMGM have introduced policies to ban bettors who harass athletes, as first reported by Gambling Insider.

This development occurs as prediction-market disputes advance in multiple jurisdictions.

State and Federal Actions on Prediction Markets

Underdog filed a federal lawsuit Sept. 15 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut against Attorney General William Tong, Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Bryan Cafferelli and Gaming Division Director Christopher Gilman. The suit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief after Connecticut issued cease-and-desist orders to nine prediction-market companies on Sept. 10. Novig, ProphetX, Gemini and Webull are in discussions with the regulator, while Coinbase, Kalshi and Robinhood are already in litigation.

Kalshi appealed a denial of preliminary injunction in its Iowa case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig held a roundtable with leaders of 17 Tribal organizations, moderated by Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association Chairman Matthew Morgan. Morgan said the CFTC’s actions undermine the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, Tribal sovereignty and critical revenue streams. In Texas, a Senate Committee on State Affairs hearing featured competing arguments from American Gaming Association Vice President Tres York and Kalshi Head of Enforcement and Legal Counsel Robert DeNault on treating event contracts as gambling.

The Enforcement Gap for Athlete Protection

The leagues’ push for uniform lifetime bans and mandatory monitoring exposes a current patchwork of state-level responses that leaves gaps in cross-operator coordination. With sportsbooks already deploying individual policies like those at BetMGM, the call for a standardized reporting framework raises questions about how regulators will verify incidents and enforce bans consistently. Operators and leagues will track whether states translate the Sept. 15 letter into binding rules before the next major sports season.

Reporting: Gambling Insider

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