Athletes, in increasing numbers, across all sports, are beginning to vocalize something about gamblers, and everyone should pay close attention. Athletes feel sports leagues’ close association with gambling companies has created a dangerous environment. A violent one. A threatening one.
Few have expressed what that danger represents better than tennis star Caroline Garcia just did. She posted on X about the impact of what she called ‘unhealthy betting.’
What Garcia said, and what others have as well, including Charlie Baker, president of the NCAA — whose comments on the impact of gambling on the mental health of college athletes flew totally under the radar — are critical. They state what many of us have believed for some time: That the unencumbered embrace of gambling by sports leagues would lead to massive financial profit but also disastrous consequences for the athletes themselves.
That was Garcia’s point (more on that in a moment) and she is far from alone in believing that.
Over the past few months, there’s been a trail of interviews showing how huge the problem is, but they have been more like spots dotting the landscape, people not seeing the pattern, but they all serve as proof of the ugliness athletes face, and may for some time.
Baker, for example, spoke in April about the vitriol college athletes face when it comes to betting.
“It’s probably the No. 1 issue I’ve heard student-athletes I’ve talked to, talk to me about,’ Baker said, ‘which is the harassment and beatdown that comes not only from the betting community but also their own school mates.”
In June, USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale wrote an excellent and stunning story about the abuse some MLB players receive because of gambling, particularly following the league’s pairing with gambling companies, and how they fear for their safety.
‘You hear it all, man,’ Arizona Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald told USA TODAY Sports. ‘You blow a save, you don’t come through, you get it all. “(Expletive) you. You suck. You cost me all of this money. (Expletive) you. (Expletive) your family. I’m going to kill you and then kill your family.’
‘It gets ugly really quickly. It’s scary, and it’s sad. It used to be fans who were upset because you blew the game for the team, but now it’s gambling. These people don’t really care about the Diamondbacks. They just care about their bets, and we’re talking about money they don’t have that they are losing. So, it’s a very scary spot.’
One MLB general manager told Nightengale that he received credible death threats that led to police protection at his home.
‘I remember being followed home one time when I was playing for Cleveland,’ Diamondbacks reliever Logan Allen said. ‘I had a really bad game, and this guy follows me home, and starts cussing at me, telling me I cost him all of this money. It’s scary.’
Tennis player Jessica Pegula, when responding to Garcia’s social media post about the abuse, wrote: ‘Yep. The constant death threats and family threats are normal now. Win or lose.’
Said Coco Gauff: ‘You could be having a good day, and then somebody will literally tell you, ‘Oh, go kill yourself.’ You’re like, ‘OK, thanks.”
Some of this is just the normal vile abuse athletes get. What’s also happening is that athletes are abused and threatened so much by gamblers now, it’s all just normal.
There’s no definitive study (at least that I’m aware of) that shows what it was like for athletes, say, 10 years ago, versus now. Anecdotally, however, this is perhaps one of the worst threat environments when it comes to gambling that we’ve ever seen for athletes.
‘You get some messed up stuff, a lot of nasty DMs (direct social media messages),’ San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb told Nightengale. ‘People are really passionate about teams, and now that you add money to it, it’s bigger than ever. My first year, there wasn’t that much gambling going on. It was just, ‘Oh, you suck. You shouldn’t be on the team.’ Just things like that.
‘Now, you’re getting, ‘You just cost me money.’ They say some (messed) up (expletive). I get a lot of that with strikeouts. ‘Hey, I got money on you for strikeouts. Are you going to hit it?’ I always look up and say, ‘Probably not.’ There are times it gets pretty serious.’
This all leads to what Garcia said. This was the key part of her post on X:
‘Tournaments and the sport keeps partnering with betting companies, which keep attracting new people to unhealthy betting,’ Garcia wrote. ‘The days of cigarette brands sponsoring sports are long gone. Yet, here we are promoting betting companies, which actively destroy the life of some people.’
She added: ‘Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they should be banned as people are free to do whatever they want with their money. But maybe we should not promote them. Also, if someone decided to say this things to me in public, he could have legal issues. So why online we are free to do anything? Shouldn’t we reconsider anonymity online?’
Absolutely yes and sports leagues should do something else: Better protect their players.
Because it is extremely ugly for them.