Congress grapples with calls for more federal regulations on sports betting

NCAA President Charlie Baker has urged Congress to ban player-specific prop bets in college athletics, saying it would help protect student-athletes from harassment and the pressure of fixing games.

Mr. Baker testified Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee that a federal prohibition on bets on individual athletes would help address some of the challenges facing student-athletes, including death threats from angry bettors, now that sports gambling is so prevalent.

“We believe that when bettors can’t gamble on college athletes’ individual performances, they are far less likely to attempt to scrutinize, coerce or harass student-athletes,” Mr. Baker said. “I think one of the most fundamental opportunities we have to take at least some of the pressure off some of these young people is to take these prop bets out of the system.”

Of the soon-to-be 39 states that have legalized sports betting, 20 allow college prop bets, he said.

College athletes​ receive a barrage of online hate from bettors.

In his testimony, Mr. Baker cited the story of North Carolina men’s basketball player Armando Bacot, who received more than 100 direct messages over social media from people furious at him because he “didn’t get enough rebounds.”

In a podcast, Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne said disgruntled bettors wanted money from him via Venmo after losing money wagering on his performance on the field. They do not reach out to send him money when his plays pay off, he said.

“It is an enormous problem for them, and it creates an incredible amount of harassment, social pressure and abuse. Period,” Mr. Baker said.

The hearing was part of Washington’s increased focus on regulating sports gambling.

The industry has exploded since the Supreme Court in 2018 ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which effectively outlawed gambling in most states aside from Nevada, was unconstitutional.

The ruling opened the door for a proliferation of gambling across the U.S. Professional sports leagues and television networks have carved out lucrative deals with gambling companies.

Last year, Americans wagered close to $120 billion on sports, including $23 billion on Super Bowl LVIII.

“It is virtually impossible to watch a sporting event today without being barraged by ads encouraging you to bet or hearing from a celebrity endorser about the latest parlay you should try, and from the industry perspective, it is a very profitable development,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, said at the start of the hearing.

The nonpartisan National Council on Problem Gambling said 2.5 million Americans have severe gambling problems and more than 8 million others have mild or moderate problems. Roughly 1 in 5 people with gambling addictions will attempt suicide.

The rapid rise of sports gambling and how companies connect with consumers through television ads and apps and by leveraging artificial intelligence fuel concerns and calls for Washington to establish more guardrails.

Harry Levant, a recovering gambling addict and director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law, told lawmakers that “sports have become the equivalent of a nonstop slot machine.”

“We are presently witnessing the early years of a fast-moving public health crisis, and the time is now for Congress to act,” he said.

He likened the addictive effects of gambling to heroin, alcohol and cocaine.

“With every other addictive product, the government regulates the advertising, promotion, distribution and consumption,” he said. “Sadly, with gambling, the exact opposite is occurring.”

Johnson Bademosi, a former NFL football player representing the National Football League Players Association, said Congress should consider barring “negative bets” on player injuries and penalties and prohibiting the purchase of player biometric data for gambling purposes.

“Taken together, recommendations such as these would go a long way toward ensuring athlete safety, maintaining the integrity of games and promoting responsible sports betting among fans,” he said.

David Rebuck, an adviser to the gambling industry and former director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, said the federal government should recognize that states are best positioned to establish their standards and regulations.

“A one-size-fits-all federal regulatory framework would lack the agility states currently have to adapt to the diverse circumstances of their individual markets and would risk imposing unnecessary burdens on both regulators and operators,” he said in written testimony.

Joe Maloney, senior vice president of the American Gaming Association, criticized the committee for not inviting an industry witness.

“This unfortunate exclusion leaves the committee and the overall proceeding bereft of testimony on how legal gaming protects consumers from the predatory illegal market and its leadership in promoting responsible gaming and safeguarding integrity,” Mr. Maloney said in a statement. “We remain committed to robust state regulatory frameworks that protect consumers, promote responsibility, and preserve integrity of athletic competition.”

Some lawmakers in Washington have been calling for more federal regulations.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, introduced the Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every Bet Act, or SAFE Bet Act, to establish nationwide consumer protections and standards for the mobile sports gambling industry.

The legislation would prohibit sportsbooks from advertising during games, limit the number of times a customer can deposit money into a sports betting account in 24 hours and ban the use of AI to track players’ gambling habits.

Mr. Blumenthal is also pushing the Gambling Addiction Recovery, Investment and Treatment Act, or the GRIT ACT. The bill would create the first federal funding source in the form of a federal sports wagering excise tax. The tax revenue would be dedicated to studying and addressing gambling addiction.