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After an unexpected loss in which he threw four interceptions in September, Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne heard from bettors angry that his subpar statistics lost bets for them. Some contacted him over the Venmo cash transfer app, asking him to refund their losses.
In March, North Carolina basketball player Armando Bacot said he got over 100 direct messages on social media from angry gamblers when he did not make enough rebounds for their bets to win.
Now the state whose U.S. Supreme Court victory led to an explosion of legal sports betting across America is considering banning such bets involving the statistical performance of college athletes.
New Jersey argues that student athletes are more accessible and thus more vulnerable to pressure and harassment than professional players, given that they eat in the same dining halls, live in the same dorms and attend classes with many other students.
“Not all of what has come from the legalization of sports betting has been positive,” says New Jersey state Sen. Kristin Corrado.
A bill before the New Jersey state Legislature would ban so-called proposition bets, commonly known as “props,” on what a particular athlete does or doesn’t do in a game. That can include how many touchdowns a quarterback throws, how many yards a running back accumulates, or how many rebounds a basketball player collects.
Austin Mayo, assistant director of government relations for the NCAA, says 1 in 3 players in sports that are heavily bet on have reported receiving harassment from gamblers.
The association wants such bets prohibited nationwide. If it passes the bill, New Jersey would join Louisiana and 12 other states that ban college prop bets, according to the American Gaming Association: Ohio, Maryland, Vermont, Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
