Gabby Thomas is one of the fastest runners in the world. She was the sprinting star of the Paris Olympics, winning three sprint gold medals\, this after taking home a silver and bronze in the Tokyo Games in 2021. Unfortunately, Thomas could not outrun a twisted bettor and trackside heckler at a Grand Prix track meet in Philadelphia last week. It’s a creepy, ugly story and we are going to have to get used to it. This is what the sports world gets for jumping in bed with online betting operations, business deals that bring in tens of millions of dollars and in way too many cases, bring out the worst of humanity.
I make no claim to be an especially virtuous human being, but one vice I do not have is gambling. If a poker game breaks out and it goes above nickels and dimes, I am out of there. I have an almost unhealthy distaste for casinos. I hate the sounds and the weird, windowless, disorienting environment, and the way they treat high rollers like royalty – anything to keep the big fat wagers coming. So yeah, the ubiquity of online gambling sites and the constant barrage of their ads is loathsome to me. I will give you 1,000-to-1 odds that the assault is only going to get worse as the FanDuels and DraftKings and BetMGMs of the world reach more and more bettors and find ever-more inventive ways to separate gamblers from their money.
The man at the center of the Thomas incident boasted on social media that he “made Gabby lose by heckling her. And it made my parlay win.” The parlay netted him more than $800. It also earned him the boot from FanDuel, which said in a statement to The Associated Press that it “condemns in the strongest terms abusive behavior directed towards athletes. Threatening or harassing athletes is unacceptable and has no place in sports. This customer is no longer able to wager with FanDuel.”
Apparently giddy over his big payday, the man then allegedly followed Thomas around the track and shouted insults as she signed autographs and posed for photos, many of them with kids. The man denied the charge and called Thomas a liar, but in a credibility contest, are you going to go with a guy who proudly calls himself “The Track and Field Bully,” or a 28-year-old woman with a degree from Harvard in neuroscience?
In a social-media thread, Thomas said, “Honestly the heckling is tolerable, it’s following me around the stadium that’s wild.”
Nor is Thomas the only athlete to recently be in the crosshairs of an agitated gambler. Last month, Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. and his family received death threats\from a fan following a 13-9 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on May 10. The Astros alerted Major League Baseball and the Houston Police Department, which identified the person as an overseas bettor who was drunk and frustrated that the Astros’ loss cost him money. McCullers started the game and lasted a third of an inning, giving up three hits and seven earned runs.
“It’s been a tough evening,” McCullers told reporters. “I understand people are very passionate and people love the Astros and love sports, but threatening to find my kids and murder them is a little bit tough to deal with.”
A study commissioned last year by the NCAA said that abuse by “by "angry sports bettors" comprises at least 12 percent of publicly posted social-media abuse experienced by college athletes. More alarming, it said that one in three high-profile athletes had received abusive messages from bettors. The study, done in conjunction with Signify Group, a data-science firm, analyzed social-media accounts of 3,000 college athletes, some 500 coaches, 200 event officials and 165 teams across an array of championship events, including the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments. The findings showed 743 abusive or threatening messages regarding betting or match-fixing allegations, nearly 75 percent of them during March Madness. Female athletes were subject to 59 percent more abuse than men, the analysis found.
In one example that was cited, the NCAA said that a prominent men’s player received a social-media message that said, "Yo no big deal but if you don't get 22 points and 12 boards everyone you know and love will Be dead."
What makes this even scarier is that the study focused only on publicly posted comments. How much more extensive could the abuse be? With gambling being normalized – and yes, even sanctioned – by sports leagues and organizations and media companies, how can bettors not feel empowered, and legitimized? The beauty, and allure, of sports is that they are unscripted. You don’t know what’s going to happen, or when. That’s the rush for gamblers, but it’s also the curse. A missed extra point or meaningless buzzer basket can turn a winning wager into a loser faster than you can say, “Damn the spread.”
Clint Hangebrauck, the NCAA’s managing director of enterprise risk, told ESPN, "It's clear to us too ... as the prevalence of sports betting went up, so did the prevalence of sports betting-related abuse.”
Indeed, since the Supreme Court ruling in 2018 legalized gambling in states beyond Nevada, the growth of betting, and especially online betting, has been unprecedented. The number of states with operational sportsbooks grew from one in 2017 to 38 in 2024, according to a study by the American Medication Association’s Journal of Internal Medicine. Total sports wagers increased from $4.9 billion in 2017 to $121.1 billion in 2023.
“Sports betting has become deeply embedded in our culture,” said Matthew Allen, a third-year medical student who was involved in the JAMA study. “From relentless advertising to social media feeds and in-game commentary, sportsbooks are now everywhere. What was once a taboo activity, confined to the fringes of society, has been completely normalized.”
Armando Bacot, the former North Carolina basketball star, found out quickly how toxic the bettor-verse can be. North Carolina legalized sports betting in March 2024, just as the NCAA tournament was beginning. Twelve days later, Bacot was swamped with nasty online messages after one of the Tar Heels’ games.
"It's terrible,” Bacot said. “I guess I didn't get enough rebounds or something. I thought I played a pretty good last game, but I looked at my DMs, and I got like over 100 messages from people telling me I sucked and stuff like that because I didn't get enough rebounds.”
The NCAA has launched a campaign to heighten awareness of the problem, highlighted by a video message titled “Don’t Be A Loser.” We’ve all heard the high-speed disclaimers from online gambling firms at the end of the endless barrage of advertisements, encouraging anyone with a gambling problem to call 1-800-Gambler. Allegedly public-service messages, such disclaimers are essentially useless. Like alcoholism and drug abuse, gambling is a disease of denial. Nobody thinks they have a problem. All they need to do is win the next wager, get on a little bit of a roll, and all will be right with the world. Just one more. One good bet and you’ll be whole. Casinos teem with customers who are certain of this. The only trouble is that the people who own the casinos know the truth: the house always wins.
Spot on, Wayne. The advertising for online betting has risen to the same level annoyance as that of law firms and pharmaceutical companies. Out of control. And those that are going after the athletes should be prosecuted. But I guess that’s freedom of speech…
Hear Hear