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FIRST ON FOX — The sports betting industry is taking a big step forward in protecting athletes and preserving the integrity of the game with a groundbreaking policy that holds players accountable for threats against players, coaches and officials.
BetMGM will launch a new “Athlete Anti-Charassment Policy” this week that will allow the betting operator to suspend or permanently terminate a customer’s account if it is determined that they have engaged in “offensive, threatening, defamatory or harassing conduct of any kind against sports officials, coaches, athletes or other individuals associated with sporting events.”
The “zero tolerance” policy comes at a time when players have been vocal about the rise in online harassment amid a rise in sports betting.
The sportsbook at Circa Resort & Hotel ahead of Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 10, 2024. (Mario Hommes/DeFodi Photos via Getty Images)
Rhea Loney, Chief Compliance Officer for BetMGM, spoke to Pakinomist Digital in an exclusive interview about the new policy and explained the motivation behind the need for more explicit protection of players and other sports figures.
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“Harassment of athletes tied to betting results is not something any of us should accept. Athletes under criticism, you know, that comes with the job,” explained Loney, “But when it comes to threats, abuse, intimidation, it’s just different. And threats, abuse, intimidation and harassment, they damage the integrity of the individual.”
Social media has become a major factor in this issue, with fans and players having easier access to players than ever before. During the summer, Boston Red Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito said he raised the issue directly with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.
Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Lucas Giolito leaves a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs during the sixth inning at Wrigley Field on July 18, 2025. (Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn photos)
“When it comes to gambling, it’s obviously created an increase in insane people online – well, not insane, just disaffected,” he told the paper. “Baseball is not boring” podcast in July. “I get messages after every game, even games where I hit well, where they’re made for me because I struck out over instead of under, or I was under instead of over as prop bets — all these crazy things. And people put hundreds of dollars on it and they don’t have a lot of money, but they gamble it anyway because it’s a disease.”
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Loney said whether these threats are made online, via social media or in person it doesn’t matter, the definitions of harassment are clear to BetMGM.
“We’re going to look into this and we’re going to look at the behavior that’s being reported to us. And I think there’s a clear line — there’s a clear line between fandom excitement and then there’s a clear line between when it’s threats of violence and when there’s racial slurs or when the fans say horrible things to athletes because of a particular game.”
“It’s not going to be tolerated by us,” she continued. “And those are going to be the individuals that we’re going to crack down on and we don’t want them on our sports betting platform. We don’t want them to be our customer because they’re undermining the integrity of the game.”
Loney said the more information provided about the complaint allows BetMGM to investigate and find out if that person has an account. Complaints can be made to law enforcement agencies and government regulators, BetMGM customer service and through an anonymous hotline. When BetMGM has enough information, it will start an investigation.
Loney said whether these threats are made online, via social media or in person it doesn’t matter, the definitions of harassment are clear to BetMGM. (PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
“We, as the legal market, know a lot of information about our customers because they have to go through very extensive KYC procedures. We know names, we know addresses, we know emails, and that’s all the requirements for participants to register and be in the legal, regulated market. So based on the information that we take from the investigative report sent to us, we can see if we’ve ever sent your account to the social media. can also work with our regulators and law enforcement for them, depending on the nature of the complaint and the nature of the threat.We will also work with our regulators and law enforcement agencies, and they may have other options to assist us than what we have internally at BetMGM.
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In June, police in Texas identified a man overseas as the culprit who allegedly made death threats directed at Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. and his family in May. Police said the man was “drunk” when he made the threats on social media after he lost money on a bet.
The Astros hired security for McCullers and his family. McCullers said he had a hard time explaining the situation to his 5-year-old daughter.
“She asked me when I got home, ‘Dad, what are threats? Who wants to hurt us? Who wants to hurt me?'” McCullers told the Associated Press at the time. “So those conversations are hard to handle.”
Lance McCullers Jr. #43 of the Houston Astros reacts to giving up three runs against the Philadelphia Phillies during the fifth inning of Game 3 of the 2022 World Series at Citizens Bank Park on November 1, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
The policy change will explicitly target these types of incidents.
Loney explained that while BetMGM has always reserved the right to hold sports bettors accountable, this new policy makes its position clear.
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“I think what we wanted to do is we actually just wanted to make this a lot more explicit and so, you know, while we have the general ability to have suspensions in our previous terms of service, what we wanted to say, and we wanted to say to the fan base, to the sports players out there, is we really want to emphasize that this is zero tolerance.
“We want this to be explicitly clear, and so we changed it to make it more explicitly clear and hopefully to send the message out that this is zero tolerance, and so I think we changed it to make sure that it was clear that this is not going to be something that we will tolerate and to send that message out to fans and bettors and also really to promote integrity, behavior within this type of integrity, within this type of integrity, took place.”
