NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS Ask States to Ban Harassing Bettors

The five major North American pro leagues and their unions asked regulators in 36 jurisdictions for lifetime bans on bettors who harass athletes.

On Tuesday, September 15, the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS — together with their players' unions — sent a joint letter to gaming regulators asking states to require sportsbooks to impose lifetime bans on bettors found to have "abusively harassed or issued threats of violence" toward athletes, coaches, officials, team personnel or their families. The letter also calls for a standardized reporting system so leagues, teams, players and unions can document abuse, and for sportsbooks to be required to "proactively monitor, flag, and ban accounts linked to abusive behavior" as a condition of holding their licenses. "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 letter states.

Harassment of athletes by losing bettors has surged since the Supreme Court opened the way for widespread legalization in 2018. The Athletic reported in August that hostility from bettors has become routine for baseball players, with about 80 of 100 players surveyed saying they had been confronted or contacted about a bettor in person or online. "If your social media is private, they'll find your family members," one anonymous National League pitcher told The Athletic. Last year, then-Astros pitcher Lance McCullers revealed threats against his children traced to an overseas bettor, and former Vikings running back Alexander Mattison described receiving racial slurs and calls for suicide after a 2022 Monday night loss in Philadelphia.

The request lands awkwardly for leagues that spent years monetizing the betting boom. According to Yahoo Sports, the NHL alone holds official partnerships with BetMGM, FanDuel and Bet99, and signed multi-year deals with prediction markets Kalshi and PolyMarket in the fall of 2025, while broadcasts are saturated with odds. Yahoo Sports argued the leagues are asking regulators to clean up a mess they helped create. Players have felt the burden directly: NBPA president Fred VanVleet said the risks were "just kind of thrown upon" players, and NFL kicker Graham Gano told the Deseret News he receives messages telling him to kill himself every week.

The letter conspicuously excluded every major women's league — the WNBA, NWSL and PWHL were not invited to sign. WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson said she learned of the letter only after publication and called it "deeply disappointing that, given the very public and troubling incidents of betting-related harassment experienced by our members over the past several seasons, the NBA determined that WNBA players did not warrant inclusion in a joint position statement intended to address this very issue." NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke said her union also learned of the letter through the media, while affirming support for protecting athletes in both men's and women's sports. WNBA players Jonquel Jones and Courtney Williams have both spoken publicly about bettor-driven abuse this season.

The Sports Betting Alliance, whose members include major sportsbooks, backed the push. "Harassing or threatening an athlete, coach, or official over a sports bet is unacceptable, and we support efforts to hold those individuals accountable," said SBA president Joe Maloney. DraftKings and Fanatics already use AI tools from integrity partner IC360 to detect social media abuse and identify harassers, and four states — Louisiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Wyoming — have passed laws matching the letter's requests. Track athlete Gabby Thomas's harasser was banned by FanDuel days after he heckled her at Franklin Field in Philadelphia and claimed online he had "made Gabby lose."

New Jersey lawmakers have considered but not passed legislation matching the request, and Pennsylvania has put forward no bill, according to PhillyVoice. The Big Ten athletes commission has separately asked the NCAA to advocate limiting prop bets, the wager type most tied to individual-player abuse, and an NCAA-commissioned study found about one-third of Division I men's basketball players reported social media abuse during March Madness. The immediate pressure point is inclusion: for the effort to carry moral weight, critics say, the men's leagues must bring women's leagues and other bettable sports into a genuinely united front.