Wyoming Considers College Player Prop Bets Ban

Wyoming moved closer to joining several other states in banning college player prop bets. The Wyoming Gaming Commission has put a proposition into action to ban betting on college player props for events sanctioned by the NCAA.

This move by the WGC comes after a request by the NCAA. The board has sent requests to several states to consider deleting betting on college player props from their respective wagering catalogs.

“By prohibiting any of the prop bets, I think that’s a step in the direction that we do want to go,” Commissioner Jenni Wildcat said. “We want to protect the integrity of the sports wagering, our patrons, our athletes, and us as a state.”

The commission can change the betting rules for Wyoming sports betting without an amendment to the legislature. Staff in the WGC were tasked with creating suggestive changes to ensure that the ban on college player props could be executed.

Wyoming Gaming Commission’s operations manager Michael Steinberg pressed for the state to penalize bettors that go after athletes, including students, with harsh consequences.

“In discussion with the NCAA and the University of Wyoming, we see this as a problem,” Steinberg said. “I don’t think we need to stop at the NCAA on our stance on harassment. We have rules against harassment in racing against jockeys.”

NCAA Concerned Over Player Safety

The primary reason for considering this ban has been the safety of student-athletes, particularly those from low-income households, who bettors have repeatedly harassed. The NCAA, led by President Charlie Baker, has pushed for states with legal betting structures to consider deleting college player prop bets from their wagering documentation.

“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity and competition and leading to student-athletes and professional athletes getting harassed,” Baker said. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats, and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”

The NCAA has taken a proactive step to protect student-athletes by partnering with data science company Signify to identify threats to players at collegiate events that could be potentially linked to high-volume sports betting. Signify also partners with the National Basketball Players Association and the WNBA.

WY Following Suit of Several Other States

Multiple states across the USA have taken steps to ban college player prop bets from their catalogs, including Maryland, Vermont, Ohio, and Louisiana. Last month, the Louisiana Gaming Control Board (LGCB) announced that betting on an individual athlete’s performance participating in an NCAA-sanctioned collegiate event will be removed from its sports betting catalog. Prop betting on an entire team is still allowed in Louisiana and other states, including Vermont.

“Our staff began to work on this weeks ago, well ahead of the NCAA’s call for action on college proposition bets. 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,” LGCB chairman Ronnie Johns said in a statement. “We feel that this order accomplishes that goal.”

Ohio banned college player prop betting after receiving a request from the NCAA while Maryland opted to ban these bets even before the NCAA’s requests.