Ohio Bans a Bettor Over Alleged Threats to Blue Jays Manager John Schneider

Ohio Bans Bettor Over Alleged Threats Against John Schneider

The Ohio Casino Control Commission placed Blake Morgan of Thornville, Ohio, on its Sports Gaming Involuntary Exclusion List at a public meeting on Wednesday, ESPN reported. People on the list are barred from state gaming facilities and from Ohio's legal betting market. We did not read the commission's order ourselves, so everything here rests on ESPN's reporting of commission records.

According to those records, a caller phoned MLB's customer service line around Oct. 28, the night of Game 4 of last year's World Series between the Blue Jays and Dodgers, and made multiple threats aimed at Schneider. The call ran nearly 14 minutes. ESPN says the caller was angry about Schneider's comments on walking Shohei Ohtani. MLB investigators traced the call to Morgan, and the league banned him from its venues and events two days later.

This game is not legit.

Morgan denied making the threats when ESPN reached him, said he has appealed, and did not appear at a June hearing, per ESPN. It is unclear whether criminal charges have been filed. An MLB spokesperson commended the order and said the league will keep working with regulators.

Betting Threats Against Players: What the Record Shows

MLB security head David Thomas told the commission in June that threats toward players and their families have spiked since states began launching betting in 2018. In September, MLB, the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS and WNBA wrote to state regulators urging action, ESPN reported.

Our Read: Regulators Are Starting to Use Betting Bans as a Safety Tool

• Exclusion lists are changing purpose. The first two Ohio names were tied to inside information. This one is about harassment, which suggests regulators now see abuse as a licensing issue and not only a police matter.
• The case is thin on public proof. The allegations come from commission records and a call recording, while Morgan disputes them and has appealed. We would treat the facts as alleged until that process ends.
• The hard part is volume. Thomas described an innumerable number of cases, and one outside expert told ESPN that quantifying the problem and catching culprits is difficult. A ban only works when someone is traced.
• Calling a game fixed after a loss is not new. What is new is that leagues now log the calls, trace them and hand them to regulators, which raises the cost of venting this way.

This is our reading, not a finding of any regulator.

What to Watch After the Ohio Order

• Whether Morgan's appeal changes the order.
• Whether other states with similar laws add harassment bans to their own lists.
• Whether leagues share threat data across sports, as the security expert ESPN quoted urged.
• Any response to the September letter from state regulators.

Read our sports betting guide for how licensed markets are regulated

Betting carries risk. Set a limit before you wager, bet only where it is legal, and step away if it stops being fun.