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Collaboration was a key focus of the inaugural Africa Safer Gambling Week, which the AiA hosted last week.
Kesitilwe told iGB an important theme of the event was fostering year-round collaboration and turning conversations on safer gambling into practical measures.
“The initiative demonstrates that cooperation does not have to remain at the level of conference and policy discussion,” he said.
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Approximately 15 months after the high court’s ruling, Patz sent a series of explicit messages to four members of MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays, threatening to “sever” their necks open. Accused by federal investigators of targeting more than 300 accounts of pro and college athletes, Patz pleaded guilty in 2021 to transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce. Although a judge ordered Patz to undergo mental health treatment and abstain from gambling, he did not sentence the bettor to prison.
Years later, former Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin convened a sports betting hearing in December 2024, the first federal hearing held on the subject in six years. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, opened the hearing with an anecdote from March Madness the prior season. Despite recording a double-double in a win over Michigan State, former North Carolina center Armando Bacot received more than 100 threats on social media, Durbin told the committee. Bacot, who finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, drew the ire of bettors for missing the “over” on his rebound total.
The subject of athlete harassment has become a popular topic at one of the nation’s largest conferences for state gambling legislators. In July, a panel at the National Council of Legislators From Gaming States spent a considerable portion of the session on distilling the root causes of the incidents. The panel featured Mid-American Conference Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, among other college sports leaders.
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Stevenson Starks shared those concerns that the NCAA has towards online sports betting in the U.S.:
“The two [concerns] are the integrity of athletic competition, and how that could potentially be impacted by a proliferation of legalized sports wagering. And then the second is really the health and well-being of student athletes.“
Stevenson added that the NCAA is determined to keep local student organisations informed of key regulations.