Ohio Bans Sports Bettor For 2025 World Series Threats Against Blue Jays Manager

• The Ohio Casino Control Commission placed Blake Morgan on the sports gaming involuntary exclusion list
• Morgan allegedly made harassing and threatening statements about Blue Jays Manager John Schneider on Oct. 28, 2025
• Morgan made the comments while on a phone call with Major League Baseball’s customer service line

---

The Ohio Casino Control Commission unanimously approved a final order to place an Ohio sports bettor on its sports gaming involuntary exclusion list after making harassing and threatening statements about Toronto Blue Jays Manager John Schneider during the 2025 World Series.

The commission yesterday placed Blake Morgan on its sports gaming involuntary exclusion list, barring him from entering any Ohio sports betting facility or participating in online sports betting in the state.

Morgan allegedly made harassing and threatening statements about Schneider while on a phone call with Major League Baseball’s (MLB) customer service line, which also led to the league indefinitely banning Morgan from all MLB stadiums, offices, academies, and other facilities.

Investigation Leads to Ban

Morgan can appeal the OCCC decision within 15 days.

The Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) issued Morgan a notice after his Oct. 28, 2025, discussion with the MLB customer service line, informing him that they intended to place him on the involuntary exclusion list. Morgan requested a hearing in front of the OCCC, which he did not attend this past summer.

According to ESPN’s David Payne Purdum, who obtained Morgan’s phone call to MLB’s customer service line, he accused Schneider of lying in a news conference about a decision to intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers in game 4. He described it as a “gambling grab” and said there was “shady, fake and disturbing behavior going on.”

“…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,” Purdum reported Morgan proclaiming on the call.

Morgan objected to several points made in the OCCC’s investigation, reporting that Ed Tomba, a retired law enforcement officer who investigated the matter as a contractor for MLB, told him during a phone call that “this all stops and ends with me.”

“Morgan argues that Tomba’s statement led him to believe no further action would be taken against him, including presumably the Commission’s action to place Morgan on the involuntary exclusion list for sports gaming. After Morgan admitted to making the phone call to MLB where he threatened the Toronto Blue Jays Manager after Game 3 of the World Series, Tomba testified that he explained the seriousness of the situation to Morgan. Evidentiary records do not reflect that the alleged statement was ever made by Tomba. Regardless of what Tomba may or may not have said to Morgan, it does not bind the Commission. The Commission has an independent statutory responsibility to ensure the integrity of sports gaming and protect the interests of the State,” the OCCC wrote in its final order.

He also said nobody reached out to him in person regarding the investigation, which the OCCC declared as “irrelevant.”

U.S. Sports Leagues Urge Lifetime Bans For Harassment

Morgan’s ban comes a month after five major U.S. professional sports leagues and their respective players associations urged greater regulatory action against customers found engaging in sports betting harassment against athletes, coaches, and officials.

The NFL, MLB, MLS, NBA and NHL sent letters to state gaming regulators urging harsher punishments for individuals found harassing both professional and amateur athletes, coaches, officials, and team personnel related to sports betting.

The leagues and player unions proposed three pieces of regulatory action for states with legalized sports betting to consider. The first, and most immediate, is a mandatory lifetime ban from sports betting activities from individuals verified to have “abusively harassed or issued threats of violence against any professional or amateur coach, official, team personnel, or their respective families.”

In accordance with this request, the associations urged states to implement a “streamlined reporting mechanism” for leagues, teams, players, and players’ associations to report harassment and evidence to threats related to sports betting.

Finally, the associations included a call for “operator accountability” to require commercial sports betting operators to monitor, flag, and ban accounts linked to abusive behavior toward athletes as a condition of licensing and maintaining their licenses.