The NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS are pushing for tougher action against sports bettors who threaten or harass athletes, coaches, officials and their families.
In a joint letter released Tuesday, the five major U.S. professional sports leagues and their players’ associations called on state gaming regulators to permanently remove verified offenders from legal sportsbooks and mobile betting platforms.
“Threatening the safety of an athlete or their family members over a sports bet crosses a bright ethical and criminal line,” the organizations said.
The leagues want state regulators to require sportsbooks to permanently revoke the betting privileges of anyone found to have made violent threats or engaged in abusive harassment.
They are also calling for a standardized system that would allow leagues and players’ associations to submit verified evidence of threatening behavior to regulators and law enforcement.
The proposal comes as legal sports betting continues to expand across the United States, with athletes in different sports reporting an increase in hostile messages from bettors angry over wagers, particularly player-proposition bets.
The groups pointed to Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana and Wyoming as states that already have exclusion systems capable of banning certain individuals from licensed sportsbooks. They want those bans to be recognized across state lines.
“Exclusion in one state should be reciprocated in other states,” the organizations said.
The leagues also want sportsbooks to identify, flag and ban accounts linked to abusive conduct as part of the requirements for maintaining their state operating licenses.
The push follows growing concerns over the effect of betting-related harassment on players and their families, particularly when individual wagers are tied to a player’s performance rather than the final result of a game.
Sports betting expanded rapidly after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal law known as PASPA in 2018, leaving individual states to determine whether and how to legalize sports wagering.
The five leagues are now seeking a more unified approach, arguing that bettors who cross the line into threats and harassment should lose access to legal sports wagering altogether. (Jesus Nathaniel Valdez)
