Ohio for Responsible Gambling (ORG) recently launched a new campaign designed to help college student-athletes in the state deal with online and in-person harassment from gamblers.
The More Than A Bet campaign features a website that includes some basic information and encourages athletes, coaches, counselors and fans to sign up for a mailing list to access tips, resources and more.
ORG is a collaborative effort between the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC), Ohio Lottery Commission, and the Ohio Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services. ORG has launched similar responsible gambling campaigns, including Change the Game (designed to prevent youth gambling) and Pause Before You Play, a sports-focused program that launched shortly before Ohio sports betting went live on January 1, 2023.
More Than A Bet Helps Ohio college athletes affected by sports betting
In a press release announcing the More Than A Bet campaign, OCCC chair Tom Stickrath said:
“These young athletes are more than a bet. The mental toll of online harassment is unacceptable. By learning about the issue and supporting student-athletes, we can change the narrative.”
The More Than A Bet website offers specific Ohio responsible gambling resources and includes statistics from the NCAA about athlete harassment, such as:
- 1 in 3 high-profile athletes receive abusive messages online from people with betting interests.
- 90% of student-athlete harassment comes online, particularly through social media channels.
- On a national level, between 15% and 25% of all student-athlete harassment is betting-related. It’s the fastest-growing type of athlete harassment, according to the NCAA.
The More Than A Bet campaign also includes a video featuring two student-athletes sharing abusive online messages like, “Your fumble cost me 500 bucks, you [expletive],” and “You cost me 2 grand, I hope your dog . . . ”
NCAA encourages college player prop bans to curb harassment
The More Than A Bet campaign comes as the NCAA has stepped up its efforts to combat the rise in student-athlete harassment on a national level as sports betting continues to spread across the U.S.
The NCAA has advocated for the elimination of college player prop bets, wagers that are based on the performance of student-athletes. In a May statement, the NCAA said those types of prop bets “target the individual for harassment and are more easily manipulated, threatening competition integrity.”
Several state regulatory bodies, including Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Vermont, Maryland, and Louisiana, have banned college player prop bets for those reasons.
Ohio banned college player prop bets in February
In February, the OCCC announced that, in response to the NCAA’s recommendation to the state in January, it would no longer allow sports wagering operators in the state to offer college player prop betting markets. In a statement shortly after the ban was announced, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine applauded the OCCC’s “quick action to protect student-athletes from unnecessary and potentially harmful threats.”
A provision in Ohio’s 2024-2025 operating budget signed by DeWine last year gave the OCCC explicit power and tools to ban Ohio bettors from engaging in sports betting in the state if they are found to have threatened a student-athlete or others connected with a sporting event.
Dayton Flyers coach addressed harassment shortly after Ohio sports betting launch
The betting-related harassment of student-athletes in Ohio made headlines just over two weeks after sports betting’s 2023 launch. After a Dayton Flyers men’s basketball game on Jan. 17, Flyers head coach Anthony Grant expressed his concerns to reporters about the harassment his players face.
Grant said he was sickened by the attacks against the “kids,” adding:
“They have families. They don’t deserve that. Mental health is real. So if you’re a Flyer fan, I ask you just to understand what you’re dealing with, with young people. Alright? Take a step back and reevaluate your priorities. And if you can’t, we don’t need you.”
At an OCCC meeting the day after Grant’s comments, executive director Matt Schuler addressed the issue, saying the commission was looking into its power to place those engaged in athlete harassment on an involuntary exclusion list, forbidding them from sports betting in the state.
Schuler, who hadn’t planned on discussing the matter of athlete harassment at the meeting, said:
“I thought that it was important enough to bring up to make sure that anyone who’s listening understands that this type of behavior is not OK for anybody in any venue at all.”
Now with the More Than A Bet campaign, Ohio responsible gambling is going a step further to protect college athletes.
