Last updated: December 20, 2024
NCAA President Charlie Baker has urged US lawmakers to ban college proposition bets at a federal level. Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Baker argued that prop bets lead to harassment and coercion of student-athletes, emphasizing the need for protective legislation.
The President of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Charlie Baker, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee and has asked US lawmakers to put an end to college proposition bets through a federal ban.
According to Baker, prop bets, more commonly referred to as prop wagers by gamblers, have increased harassment of student-athletes. He further proposed that sports gambling should not be legalized in the first place to allow such betting.
This is not the first time Baker has called for such bets to be banned. In fact, he did just last March. He has, besides that, been an avowed proponent of banning the said bets since well before PASPA was repealed in 2018.
According to Baker in addressing the problem: “We believe that when bettors cannot wager on the individual performances of college athletes, they are significantly less inclined to scrutinize, coerce, or harass student-athletes.”
The NCAA has realized the rise in online harassment of student-athletes and has taken measures to help the victims. Additionally, some states have gone even further and have chosen not to wait for a federal law to be introduced or enforced and have added abusive sports fans to their lists of involuntary exclusions.
A proposition bet, also often called a prop, is considered a type of bet in which gamblers predict a specific outcome commonly concerned with the performance of individual players. With the recent rise of growth experienced by sports gambling and skyrocketed popularity, student-athletes face criticism from disappointed fans making wagers online where such gamblers have reportedly experienced losses on their wagers.
Baker claims that the practices should be outlawed altogether with proper legislation. So far, nearly 20 states have passed legislation that enables college sports wagering. Additionally, Baker points out that between 10% and 15% of all participants in Division I have claimed to have suffered abuse.
In fact, some cases have been even worse. “Many have received death threats from bettors, and they also receive other, in-person threats and accusations directed at them while they are leaving or coming onto the field of play,” Baker told the senators.
The NCAA also determined that there is significant peer pressure from the immediate social network of the athletes. For instance, Baker noted that some athletes may be encouraged by friends close to them not to lose in the classical sense but to rather miss a few points here and there at strategic points of the game. These practices have already resulted in some losing careers, for example with professional athletes, including Jontay Porter who was provided a lifetime ban from professional basketball and particularly the NBA although his future is also restricted by this scandal.
