- The Louisiana Gaming Control Board has banned player prop bets on college sports.
- Effective August 1, 2024, sports bettors in Louisiana will no longer be able to wager on player props at regulated sportsbooks.
- The ban is in response to a recent wave of match-fixing scandals and threats to collegiate athletes from bettors on social media.
Louisiana is joining Maryland, Ohio, and Vermont as recent states to prohibit betting player propositions. The Louisiana Gaming Control Board announced that the state is banning player proposition betting on college sports.
As of August 1, 2024, it will be illegal for regulated sportsbooks in Louisiana to offer wagers on collegiate athletes. Bettors will no longer be able to wager on individual players’ performance in games. The most common player props are on the over/under of a particular player state.
As an example, gamblers will no longer be able to wager on how many yards a college QB passes for in a game or wide receiver receptions. Note that the ban does not cover game propositions.
Bettors will still have the ability to bet on team statistics-based prop bets, but individual collegiate athlete betting is forbidden under the new law. Last month, NCAA President Charlie Baker urged state lawmakers to consider banning prop betting.
Move To Protect Integrity and Athlete Safety
Louisiana Gaming Control Board chairman Ronnie Johns stated that the motivation for banning player prop betting on college sporting events is to protect collegiate athletics and its athletes.
“It is the intention of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board to protect the integrity of sports betting as well as the safety and integrity of college athletes,” Johns said. “We feel that this order accomplishes that goal.”
Johns notes that the motion for the measure was set before Baker’s warning to state lawmakers. According to ESPN, several states are considering banning player prop bets in response to Baker’s statement.
Kansas, Wyoming, and New Jersey will consider implementing their own player prop measures at a meeting on May 9.
Match Fixing Scandals Plague Basketball
During the 2023-24 college basketball season, there were at least two prominent teams involved in match-fixing allegations. Temple and Loyola (Md.) were flagged by gambling watchdog U.S. Integrity for potentially compromised games.
Currently, Temple and Loyola (Md.) are in the process of reviewing matchups from this past season. Additionally, the NBA has a recent match-fixing scandal on its hands, as the Toronto Raptors’ Jontay Porter is at the center of an investigation regarding player prop bets.
Porter allegedly made bets on himself, with DraftKings reporting an unusual amount of action on his player props. Under bets on Porter’s production for points, rebounds, assists, and three-pointers were suspicious in at least two games.
On March 20, Porter exited the game against the Sacramento Kings with an apparent eye injury after recording just two rebounds in three minutes. A matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers in early January has also been under the microscope.
Athletes Receiving Harassment From Bettors Online
Another important aspect of the ban is trying to reduce the abuse and harassment that athletes receive online. Last year, ESPN reported that some colleges reported over 200 cases of threats from gamblers.
“Colleges are stressed about it and have loads of instances of athletes being abused,” said the head of delivery for Epic Risk Management, Mark Potter. “One college had over 200 [instances].”
Damion Baugh of the TCU Horned Frogs has had first-hand accounts of receiving abuse from bettors on social media.
“Everybody playing sports growing up, we play until the whistle, play until the end of the game,” Baugh said. “People just forget about that. Saying I shouldn’t have taken the shot is saying, ‘We don’t care about the game. We just wanted to win our money.’
I expect other states to follow Louisiana, Ohio, Vermont, and Maryland’s lead before the end of the year. Currently, states, such as North Carolina and Florida, have no rules against betting on player prop bets.
