Online sports betting’s growing wave of rage, harassment and criminality

There is no shortage of policy issues surrounding sports gambling these days. The same rapidly growing industry that seems to populate every commercial segment during professional and college football is the subject of discussions about everything from how it is to be taxed and regulated to allegations of predatory behaviors and beyond.

It is also possible that coming regulations (or lack thereof) on technology companies will affect this industry just like its peers in social media, financial technology, and countless other industries that are heavily reliant on technology.

But everyone sees that showdown coming. The coming policy clash that no one sees coming is where the burgeoning sports gambling world will undoubtedly cross paths with the Homeland Security world.

Before you object to the premise, let’s take a look at some interesting statistics.

In October 2024, Signify Sports released a study analyzing communication between the public and student athletes on social media platforms. Of the messages reviewed by analysts nearly 10 percent contained abusive, discriminatory or threatening content, and within that set 6 percent contained violent threats. About 12 percent of all the abuse found was directly related to sport betting.

Going beyond strictly gambling, researchers at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center have been tracking the rise of threats to public officials. They found that when comparing data from 2013-2016 and 2017-2022 there was a more than 60 percent increase in federal charges for threats to public officials.

On top of that this year we’ve seen professional athletes targeted for home burglaries and a health care CEO murdered in midtown Manhattan in the middle of the day.

All of these data points taken together suggest a convergence of sports, sports gambling, rising security risks and the need for prudent policy and mitigation steps that address the problem in a real way.

So where does the policy clash come in and more pointedly, how is this a national policy issue and not just something for local police to sort out after a crime is committed?

That is a fair question, but it is important to note that 38 States plus the District of Columbia have now legalized gambling, including sports wagering; and Congress is considering legislation that would create a nationwide framework for States to adhere to. So, this is more than just a state and local issue and the problems that arise will affect the American public in common ways.

The University of Oregon recently published research indicating that when a professional football team has an unexpected loss, not only do incidents of domestic violence increase — but when gambling is involved the chances for such violence increase even more.

According to the university's research, legalized gambling increased rates of domestic violence by about 9 percent, especially in areas with legalized mobile online gambling as opposed to in-person sports gambling.

As gambling and related violence become more commonplace, it stands to reason that the targets of violence will expand beyond those who just happen to live with the losing bettor. And that is where homeland security-focused policymakers will start to take notice and start to ask questions of casinos, betting platforms, and sports leagues.

No matter where you sit on the policy spectrum regarding the issue of sports betting, if you connect these dots, you can see the policy debate coming — so the prudent thing to do would be to prepare now for common sense solutions that can be built into products and platforms now, rather than bolting them on down the line. Or worse yet, claiming that the car is too far down the track to try and establish important protections.

Betting platforms and their sports league sponsors need to use the data they generate from gamblers to identify potential risk factors and share that information among each other and relevant authorities to prevent acts of violence and violent threats aimed at intimidating athletes — especially college athletes.

Terrorism is narrowly defined as violence, or threats of violence for political motives, so the threats discussed here fall outside of those bounds and within the purview of criminal threats. But plenty of crimes that are not terrorism fall within the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security, its criminal investigators, and policy professionals—to say nothing of legislators with an interest in sports integrity and homeland security.

Right now, the bulk of the policy debate with respect to the growth of sports gambling is around competition, taxation, and other economic issues. It would be naïve to not see a shift in that focus coming soon and the leagues and betting platforms ought to take steps now that can improve U.S. Homeland Security.

Matthew Wein is an independent consultant who served as a professional staff member on the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism and as a policy adviser to the DHS assistant secretary for policy.

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