All the major U.S. sports leagues are banding together to seek harsher punishments for bettors who harass teams and athletes when they begin losing money.
MLB, MLS, the NBA, the NFL, and the NHL, along with their players’ unions, issued a joint statement to state gambling commissions seeking penalties for people who threaten players, teams, or league officials over gambling losses. The leagues are seeking permanent bans from sportsbooks or other penalties.
“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 joint statement reads, according to the New York Post.
“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 continued.
The leagues want states to implement rules allowing sportsbooks to ban bettors caught harassing league officials, players, or their families.
They are also asking regulators to create a system that lets leagues report abusive gamblers.
Finally, they want state gambling authorities to create rules forcing sportsbooks to participate in the reporting and banning regime or risk losing their licenses.
Players and league officials have worried about an uptick in harassment by losing gamblers and say the level of attacks online and in person has risen to unacceptable levels. And i t continues to get worse.
Former Mets pitcher Ryne Stanek, for instance, recently said that he received threats from gamblers every day when he was playing.
“It’s not anything that every baseball player doesn’t deal with all the time,” he said. “Like, ‘You cost me my parlay, I hope your family dies,” he said.
Nina Westbrook, the wife of former NBA superstar Russell Westbrook, said it was “routine” to get a constant stream of threats, and one she remembers said, “I hope you both die in a car crash, dumb bitch.”
Rockets point guard Fred VanVleet even said an upset gambler approached him at church, adding, “It’s the in-person one you gotta be careful for.”
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