The NFL, MLB, MLS, NBA and NHL, together with their players’ unions, have asked state gambling regulators to impose lifetime betting bans on people verified to have abusively harassed or threatened sports participants and their families over wagers.
Letters sent Tuesday to regulators in 35 states and the District of Columbia called for permanent revocation of betting privileges for offenders targeting professional or amateur athletes, coaches, officials and team personnel. The coalition said losing bettors too often direct threatening messages at players, coaches and families through social media and in person.
The request goes beyond exclusion rules. The leagues and unions want a streamlined channel through which leagues, teams, players and players’ associations can submit harassment reports and evidence of threats. They also urged regulators to make operators monitor, flag and ban accounts linked to abusive conduct as a condition of licensing and continued licensure.
The letter described harassment and violent threats from bettors as an escalating threat, arguing that participants’ safety and well-being must take priority over a wager. It said people who threaten athletes or coaches should lose the privilege of sports betting permanently.
The Sports Betting Alliance backed the push. Its president, Joe Maloney, said legal sportsbooks already suspend or ban customers for threatening or abusive conduct, and that alliance members are investing in tools and partnerships to identify bad actors and share information with leagues and other stakeholders.
The signatories pointed to Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana and Wyoming as states with rules allowing regulators to exclude bettors found to have engaged in such conduct. Wyoming approved regulatory changes in December 2024 that clarified its definition of harassment and allowed athletes’ harassers to be placed on an involuntary exclusion list. Ohio’s 2024-25 budget authorised exclusions for threats against student-athletes, though that provision does not cover professional athletes.
West Virginia’s law, signed in March 2024 and effective that June, permits the state lottery commission to bar people from betting for threatening violence or harm connected to sports gaming. Louisiana also empowered its gaming control board to exclude customers from retail and online sports betting for threats related to a sporting event.
The letters did not mention recent action taken by Massachusetts, where the Massachusetts Gaming Commission launched its Bet on Respect programme in late August. The programme allows anyone to report suspected athlete harassment by email or through an online portal. The commission’s Sports Wagering Division collects evidence and works with operators to identify alleged perpetrators in online cases before referring matters to its Investigations and Enforcement Bureau.
Under Massachusetts regulation 205 CMR 152.03, the bureau can assess whether conduct meets exclusion criteria, conduct further investigation including through subpoenas, or begin exclusion proceedings. A person notified of exclusion has 30 days to appeal; once that period ends, or an appeal is decided, the exclusion takes immediate effect across licensed sportsbooks and casino properties in the state.
Massachusetts cited NCAA research indicating that 51% of Division I men’s basketball student-athletes had faced online abuse over their performance, with 46% of those respondents saying the abuse was directly tied to gambling. The MLBPA is among the letter’s signatories. As covered in June, the union separately proposed banning player prop bets as part of its bargaining agenda.
