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Many professional athletes have shed light on what they’ve had to deal with as sports betting has become increasingly normalized in America. That includes Scottie Scheffler, who decided to delete his Venmo account thanks to gamblers who couldn’t exercise the tiniest amount of restraint.
The widespread legalization of sports betting in the United States has been a pretty welcome development for plenty of people who are able to exercise some self-control when it comes to wagering, but it didn’t take a genius to know that development would inevitably amplify the darker sides of that particular pastime.
Last year, the NCAA published a report that linked sports betting to a spike in the harassment of student-athletes (this week, it noted players were targeted less frequently during March Madness this year with the caveat that there was a spike in the number of threats issued to coaches and members of the tournament selection committee).
There’s also been more than a few athletes who’ve bemoaned the many fans who won’t think twice about sliding into their DMs or even confronting them in person while blaming them for a bet that didn’t cash, and there have been more than a few instances where salty gamblers have requested money from them on Venmo in an attempt to recoup their lost funds.
According to CNN, that approach led to Scottie Scheffler opting to delete his Venmo account, as the man who’s been the odds-on favorite in the golf tournaments he’s played in more often than not in recent years revealed he got tired of the harassment he had to deal with when he failed to come away with a win while speaking with the media ahead of the U.S. Open, saying
“I had to get rid of my Venmo because I was either getting paid by people or people requesting me a bunch of money when I didn’t win. It wasn’t a good feeling.”
He noted the instances where people paid him to thank him for helping them win a bet were firmly outnumbered by the number of requests from jilted bettors, and it’s pretty easy to understand why he didn’t stick around to get “a couple bucks here or there” when you consider he’s accumulated over $86 million in career earnings.