Gambling has long captivated the American public through films like Goodfellas and the cultural relevance of a trip to Vegas, making it a cornerstone of nightlife and emblematic of the underground of American polite society. Recently, gambling has evolved, with sports betting platforms like “Kalshi” and “DraftKings” now at the forefront of the industry. In 2025, 22% of U.S. adults had bet on sports, and about 10% reported using online betting apps. Among individuals now engaged in sports betting practices, no one has been more subject to public scrutiny than the athletes themselves, particularly college athletes. 

Oftentimes, high-profile student-athlete cases caught up in NCAA infractions, like that of the scandal involving the Iowa State football team, become the centerpiece of discussions surrounding sports betting. The NCAA’s current sports betting policies only restrict athletes and athletic staff from betting on games they are engaged in. While punishing student-athletes for betting on games they’re playing in is an important discussion, it often neglects the impact the sports betting industry has on the mental and emotional well-being of student-athletes. 

In a survey of Division I men’s basketball players, one in three student-athletes reported that they had received direct blame by fans for betting losses. An additional 7% reported receiving negative or threatening messages on social media from fans who bet on their game, and 9% reported that a student had come up to them on campus and told them they won or lost a bet placed on them.

As a response to the rampant harassment of college student-athletes, the NCAA has proposed an effort to “Draw The Line” against sports betting abuse and player mistreatment. Per the NCAA website, these efforts include work with artificial intelligence services to monitor and respond to online harassment, a collaboration with “Venmo” to create a student-athlete harassment hotline, and an NCAA learning module to help student-athletes recognize online abuse. These efforts by the NCAA to address the harassment student athletes face are admirable. However, monitoring and educating services—though valuable—appear ineffective in preventing college athletes from excessive harassment.

In light of the policy vacuum left by the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Murphy v. NCAA, which struck down a federal ban on sports betting, deeper policy changes are needed at the state level. As of 2026, however, 39 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized some form of sports betting, and the vast majority have extended this legalization to college athletics.

As such, the NCAA has begun to advocate at the state level, specifically singling out prop bets as areas to push for regulation. Prop bets, or bets that center around the occurrence of outcomes in a game rather than the final score, are noted to be lost by bettors around 70% of the time, making athletes especially prone to harassment from angry gamblers. The push for prop betting regulation has picked up some momentum among members of Congress, namely Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii. However, given that prop bets fuel an estimated $13.7 billion in revenue for the gambling industry and colleges appear unconcerned with terminating contracts in place with casinos, it seems regulation is still an uphill battle. 

Many critics of prop bet regulation in college athletics cite that the nature of playing athletics at a prestigious and highly compensated level necessitates a tradeoff. In other words, it’s hard to empathize with 18-year-old millionaires, who, in some cases, know that online hate can come with the spotlight. However, when hundreds of young players are being sent messages like: “What’s your Venmo bro? Need my $431 you lost today,” or “You’re the laughing stock of your family,” or death threats to the player or their family, the discussion around how much money they are making becomes irrelevant. No player gets paid enough to deal with the verbal and emotional distress of a complete stranger threatening their life. In failing to address the toll sports betting-related harassment takes on student-athletes, state policymakers continue to enable harassment by fans who sit on their couch, treating college students as nothing more than another chip on the poker table.