US Sports Leagues Ask 35 States to Ban Bettors Who Threaten Athletes

Five of North America’s largest professional sports leagues and their players’ unions have asked gambling regulators in 35 states and the District of Columbia to create rules allowing permanent, lifetime exclusion from regulated sportsbooks for bettors who threaten or harass athletes. The joint letter — signed by the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS together with their respective players associations — was sent on Tuesday, 15 September 2026, and asks that betting privileges be permanently revoked for anyone found to have threatened or harassed athletes, coaches, officials or team personnel. Yogonet

For operators, the request matters because it would convert a reputational and security problem into a licensing condition. The letter proposes that commercial sportsbooks be required to monitor, flag and ban accounts linked to abusive behaviour as a condition of holding a licence. PhillyVoice

What the leagues are asking for

The memo sets out three connected regulatory actions.

The first is a mandatory lifetime ban. The leagues asked sportsbooks and mobile betting operators to permanently revoke wagering privileges for any individual verified to have “abusively harassed or issued threats of violence” against any professional or amateur athlete, coach, official, team employee or their families.</cite> The NCAA did not sign the letter, although the signatories asked states to extend protection to amateur athletes as well. Leagues Seek Sportsbook Bans for Bettors who Threaten Athletes +2

The second is a reporting channel. The leagues and unions urged states to implement a streamlined mechanism through which leagues, teams, players and players’ associations can report harassment and submit evidence of betting-related threats. Sports Betting Dime

The third is technical infrastructure. The leagues proposed a standardised, cross-operator reporting platform that would let players, unions and leagues securely transmit verified evidence of threats to state regulators. The NFL referenced a comparable concept in comments filed with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission this summer on prediction markets. iGaming Business Yogonet

Underpinning all three is a call for consistency. The signatories asked state gaming commissions and policymakers to adopt uniform rules and legislative safeguards, arguing that threatening an athlete or their family over a wager crosses both an ethical and a criminal line. Yogonet

A patchwork that already exists in four states

The proposal is not without precedent. Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana and Wyoming already operate mechanisms to exclude bad actors from licensed sportsbooks and mobile applications. Yogonet

Those regimes vary in scope. The Wyoming Gaming Commission approved regulatory changes in December 2024, developed with the state attorney general’s office, that redefined harassment and allowed those engaging in it to be placed on an involuntary exclusion list. Ohio legislators included a provision in the state’s 2024-25 fiscal year budget permitting regulators to ban or exclude bettors who harass or threaten student-athletes — a measure that does not extend to professional athletes. Sports Betting Dime

That inconsistency is precisely what the leagues are targeting: a bettor excluded in one state currently faces no barrier in the next.

Why the issue has escalated

Harassment of athletes by bettors has increased since the US Supreme Court’s 2018 PASPA ruling opened the door to state-regulated sports betting. Former Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers received threats from a bettor later determined to be resident overseas. Yogonet iGaming Business

California bettor Benjamin “Parlay” Patz sent messages to four Tampa Bay Rays players threatening to sever their necks, and federal investigators accused him of targeting more than 300 accounts belonging to professional and college athletes. Patz pleaded guilty in 2021 to transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce; a judge ordered mental health treatment and a gambling ban rather than a custodial sentence. Yogonet

In December 2024, then-Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin convened the first federal hearing on sports betting in six years, noting that former North Carolina centre Armando Bacot had received more than 100 social media threats after missing the “over” on his rebound total. Yogonet

Data points in the same direction. NCAA research has found that 7% of Division I men’s athletes have experienced betting-related harassment, rising to 36% among men’s basketball players. playusa

Operators were already moving

Sportsbooks have signalled they do not intend to fight the principle. Joe Maloney, president of the Sports Betting Alliance — whose members include DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics and bet365 — said members are investing in tools and partnerships to identify bad actors and share information with leagues and other stakeholders, and welcomed efforts to make clear that “harassment has no place in sports”.</cite> playusa iGaming Business

Concrete steps predate Tuesday’s letter. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission launched its Bet on Respect initiative in late August 2026, introducing a reporting portal for harassment linked to sports wagering, and BetMGM introduced a zero-tolerance harassment policy earlier this year. playusa

On 16 September, one day after the letter, DraftKings expanded its agreement with Integrity Compliance 360 to deploy the firm’s full suite across its sportsbook and event-contract platforms, including ProhiBet Bad Actors, a tool that identifies customers who threaten, harass or abuse athletes, coaches and officials. Customers found in violation can have accounts suspended or permanently banned, with serious cases referred to leagues or law enforcement. DraftKings chief responsible gaming officer Lori Kalani said the agreement provides additional tools to detect abusive or manipulative behaviour and protect competition integrity. playusa playusa

Criticism over who was left out

The coalition drew immediate criticism for its composition. The WNBPA objected to the NBA signing the request without including any women’s leagues, arguing the memo addressed exactly the kind of abuse WNBA players have reported. Executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson said the omission was disappointing given the public betting-related harassment incidents involving union members in recent seasons. PlayUSA

Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud said in July that she had raised player safety around betting-related threats with both NBA commissioner Adam Silver and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. PlayUSA

What it means for the market

The commercial implications fall mainly on compliance and account management. If states adopt the framework, operators would need verification processes capable of supporting a permanent exclusion decision, interoperable reporting with leagues and regulators, and audit trails able to withstand challenge — obligations closer to AML infrastructure than to standard customer-service policy.

A significant open question is how states would verify abusive harassment or threats before imposing a permanent wagering ban, and which jurisdictions might act first. PlayUSA

The scope question extends beyond sportsbooks. DraftKings launched its proprietary DKeX exchange in June, and is applying the same integrity standards across sportsbook and prediction market operations — a reminder that any exclusion regime confined to licensed sportsbooks would leave federally regulated event-contract platforms outside its reach. playusa

What happens next

No regulator has publicly committed to the proposals. New Jersey lawmakers have considered legislation matching the coalition’s requests without passing a bill, while Pennsylvania legislators have not introduced one. PhillyVoice

On Capitol Hill, Senate Commerce Committee chairman Ted Cruz co-authored the Protect College Sports Act with Senator Maria Cantwell, and a cloture motion for floor debate began this week. The bill would bar student-athletes from trading on prediction markets but does not address athlete harassment directly. It is not yet clear whether any league commissioners are prepared to testify before Congress on the issue. Yogonet iGaming Business

The near-term venue for industry response is G2E in Las Vegas, running 28 September to 1 October 2026, where integrity and exclusion tooling are likely to feature prominently among vendors already selling into this problem.

Sources

iGB (iGaming Business)
Yogonet International
PlayUSA
Associated Press
PhillyVoice
SportsBettingDime

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