CNN
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Gabby Thomas was shocked when he was harassed at the Grand Slam Track Tournament last weekend.
Thomas, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, said she was verbally abused at the tournament, reporting that “the grown man chased me around the track while taking photos and signing autographs for fans (mostly children) and screaming personal insults.”
Thomas’ statement responded to another post about X (which was subsequently deleted). Showing a video of someone squeezing Thomas while he was on the starting line, “You’re a chalk artist. You’re down, Gabby.”
Social media users bragged about how his actions benefited his bets, saying, “I hecked her and lost Gabby.
Fanduel said it banned those responsible for abuse from the platform and described it as “the most strongly condemns abusive behaviour directed at athletes.”
“Threatening or harassing athletes are not accepted and have no place in the sport. This customer can no longer bet with fan duel,” the statement shared with CNN Sports added.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court broke the federal law of 1992, prohibiting most states from allowing sports betting.
Currently, sports gambling is legal in 39 states, and what experts are warning that they have opened the floodgates due to a rapid rapidity of abuse against experts and university leagues from bettors who blame their financial losses.
In March, the NCAA launched a campaign aimed at tackling what was called “the incredible spread of student-athletes of abuse and harassment from angry fans who lost their bets.”
According to the NCAA, 12% – about 740 messages were related to sports betting, according to an analysis of abusive messages sent to university athletes, coaches and officials via social media during the Division I Championship.
An instance of such a message included one user who threatened a college athlete with the message “No big deal, but if you don’t get 22 points and 12 boards, everyone you know and love will die.”
Meanwhile, over 540 abusive betting messages, including death threats, were leveled out among male and female basketball student-athletes and gamers during the March madness.
Clint Hange Black, managing director of enterprise risk management at the NCAA, told CNN:
Hangebrauck, who has worked for the NCAA for 15 years, added that the number of athletes being abused has skyrocketed since the federal ban on sports betting was repealed, adding that in certain states, including Ohio and North Carolina, the barrage of abuse against student-athletes was “nearly close.”
The NCAA is currently calling for a jointly known proposal betting ban on university athletes, calling the phenomenon a “mental health nightmare.” Prop bets are made with results not associated with the final score and are often based on individual performance.
“You can even work well and you didn’t hit a certain bet line, so you’re receiving all this negative feedback from the better,” Hange Black added, noting that about half of the states that allow gambling in the US ban betting props on student-athletes.
Jason Lopez, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin’s Faculty of Communications and Arts, told CNN Sports:
“What could become a team game can also turn into individual performances, so it’s easy to focus on the anger you bet on individual players.”
The issue of bettors harassing athletes is spreading across the field of sports, with tennis and NBA players reporting instances of abuse.
For a few professional athletes, it’s an opportunity to punch back. NBA superstar Kevin Durant posted on X in November 2024, in response to social media users who gave him grief about his sadness over his poor performance in the game, saying, “Stop blaming me for losing money because of gambling issues.”
For others, however, social media comments made Cross an acceptable line. Over the past few weeks, MLB players Lance McCullers Jr. and Liam Hendriks have both reported that their families are on the receiving end of death threats.
Houston Astros pitcher McCullers Jr. revealed he was threatened by a man he took to social media and threatened to find a child and “kill” him.
Houston police later traced these threats to foreign drunk sports bettors who lost their bets on May 10th match against the Cincinnati Reds on Reuters by Reuters.
Boston Red Sox pitcher Hendrix reported similar abuse, telling MLB.com that “it’s been much worse due to the rise of sports gambling.”
“The threat to my life and my wife’s life is horrifyingly cruel,” he wrote in a post on his Instagram story.
“You need help. Comments telling me to commit suicide and I’m disgusting and despicable that I died of cancer. Maybe you need to take a step back and reassess your life purpose before hiding behind a screen attacking players and their families.
He added: “Whether it’s a Venmo request, “Hey, you blew my parlay. Blow yourself away,” or it’s “Hang on yourself. You kill yourself.”
Hendrix, who announced he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2023, added, “Everything I’ve experienced has gotten a little too close for me.”
Joe Maloney, senior vice president of strategic communications at the American Gaming Association, told CNN Sports:
“The legal regulatory industry provides the transparency and accountability necessary to work with fraudsters, regulators and law enforcement agencies, block fraud and stop the consequences. Unlike illegal and unregulated market apps and bookies, legal operators maintain the integrity of their competition every day and ensure a responsible betting environment.
Lopez noted that sports betting has recently been legalized and commercialized throughout the US, but most sports are related to betting from their start, despite being more underground capabilities until recently.
“The basic fact about the companies and organizations that run these games for entertainment is that gambling helps to raise interest.
“It can hurt entertainment products because their athletes are abused, especially if they are college athletes. So you need to take a very public stance on this in order to try and alleviate the idea that they know that this entertainment product is putting people at risk,” he added.
Hangebrauck added to CNN: “I think there’s a responsible way to engage in sports betting. A lot of fans and people do. Overall, in the long run, 96% is generally lost in sports betting.