The Wyoming Gaming Commission today (22 November) unanimously voted to amend its rules and put anyone found guilty of athlete harassment onto the state’s involuntary exclusion list.
The decision came four months after a spirited discussion about banning college-player prop bets.
Commissioners in July discussed a ban, which the NCAA has been lobbying for around the country. But they determined that the bet is not the issue. Rather, the heart of the problem, commissioners said, is bettors who harass athletes, coaches, officials and others involved with sporting events.
At that meeting, Scott Ward, a lobbyist with the Sports Betting Alliance (SBA) argued that banning prop bets would send bettors offshore. WGC operations manager Michael Steinberg presented his findings on the subject.
He offered several solutions, but ultimately found that “We all agree that harassment of student athletes is bad and something that should not be tolerated. The question then becomes, is banning prop bets going to eliminate the harassment of athletes?”
Only 2 other states have athlete harassment penalties
In response, the WGC staff proposed amending the rules to define “harass” and take action by putting those people onto the involuntary exclusion list.
On that list are people banned from betting in the state for a variety of reasons. The list is available to all operators, who can then deny bets, should a banned bettor try to wager.
The new definition of “harass” reads:
“Harass” means to engage in conduct, including but not limited to verbal threats, written threats, electronic threats, lewd or obscene statements or images, vandalism or nonconsensual physical contact, directed at a person the [offender] knew or should have known would cause a reasonable person to suffer: substantial emotional distress; substantial fear for their safety or the safety of another person; or substantial fear for the destruction of their property.
Harassment and banning college-player prop bets has been a key issue since last spring. At that time, the NCAA began a campaign to have states to ban such bets. They are now prohibited in 13 US jurisdictions.
Laws or rules around harassment aren’t as prevalent. Both Ohio and West Virginia have regulations in place to penalise harassers.
In Wyoming, commission staff said that the NCAA, the University of Wyoming and wagering operators support the change. The staff proposal was slightly amended – commissioners agreed to change the word “defendant” to “offender” – in the harassment definition.
