Ohio Bans Sports Bettor Over Alleged World Series Threats

Last Wednesday, the Ohio Casino Control Commission banned a man from Ohio from sports betting after the man made threats against Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider during the 2025 World Series. 

The man banned, Blake Morgan, was placed on the Sports Gaming Involuntary Exclusion List. Those placed on the list are banned from "all state gaming facilities and prohibited from participating in the state's legal betting market," per ESPN.

ESPN said it reached out to Morgan for comment, and he denied making threats; he has filed an appeal. 

Ohio Bettor Accused of Threatening Blue Jays Manager

According to commission records, Morgan called Major League Baseball's customer support phone line on October 28, 2025, which was the night of Game 4 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's said that during the call, Morgan made threats, and the conversation lasted 14 minutes.

The caller, who is said to be Morgan, went by "B." 

"That was a gambling grab. This game is not legit," the caller said. "There's shady, fake and disturbing behavior going on."

From there, the caller said more to the customer service representative.

"...do I need to go to the game and on live TV and you know knock the dude's f---in' head off right now on live TV so everyone can see that.

"We've got his address, we've got all of his information ... if you don't do something about it then we're going to deal with your manager."

From there, MLB traced the call to Morgan, a security representative for MLB, who called and spoke to Morgan, and he acknowledged gambling was involved and said he made the call because he was "pissed off" about Schneider's comments, but said he had no plans to travel to Toronto or Los Angeles. 

The league went on to ban Morgan indefinitely from its venues, and a local sheriff's department also spoke with him. 

As mentioned, Morgan denied the threats, saying, "The whole issue here is somebody that was visiting me made a phone call and it wasn't me."

"We commend the final order by the Ohio Casino Control Commission," an MLB spokesperson said in a statement to ESPN. "We will continue to work with regulators across the country to protect those who work in our industry from unacceptable threats."

The Blue Jays denied comment, per ESPN.

MLB Reports Rising Threats Against Players From Sports Bettors

This follows the NBA's implementation of a new text hotline for players to report online social media messages that harass athletes and officials. 

David Thomas, head of MLB security, told the commission that since legal online betting began in 2018, threats against players and their families have increased. 

"We receive just an innumerable number of cases, you know, in which people are threatening to, bettors are threatening to harm or kill or behead or rape players, their spouses, their girlfriends and their children," Thomas said. "It's awful."