Pascal Siakam latest Raptors star to condemn sports betting's effect on fan behaviour

Betting has become indelibly etched into the pro sports experience, particularly for the fans, but that doesn’t mean players aren't affected, too.

Recently, Toronto Raptors stars Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, and Chris Boucher talked about the harmful impact sports gambling has had on their lives and the type of vitriol they receive when they fail to secure a fan's parlay.

During an appearance on "The Draymond Green Show," Siakam was asked what he thinks of sports betting in the NBA. The two-time All-Star did not mince words when condemning his experiences with fans and gambling, stating that they will “literally wish you death because they missed whatever they were betting on.”

Additionally, with a big smile, Siakam said that he does not care whether fans miss their parlays.

“That culture is the craziest thing to me because they will literally wish you death because they missed whatever they were betting on,” Siakam said. “I just want to say, I don’t like it, and stop messaging me about you lost your parlay, I don’t care; I could care less. You could miss your parlay today, tomorrow, I could really care less. It doesn’t matter to me.”

Echoing a similar sentiment to Siakam, VanVleet also stated how little he cares about fans’ betting props. While talking with Amit Mann and former Raptor C.J. Miles on "Strictly Hoops", VanVleet spoke out against sports betting culture.

Interestingly, though, the All-Star guard said he also learned life lessons from sports gamblers. Due to him being constantly inundated online by bettors, VanVleet has taken a hiatus from social media. He says that he is grateful for them giving him a reason to stay off of Twitter and Instagram, in turn allowing himself to limit the negative energy that lives online.

VanVleet went on to talk about how fans cannot fathom what it’s like to receive an, “I hope your mom dies,” message every day.

Both Siakam and VanVleet talked about receiving death threats from disgruntled fans, but people will go to extraordinarily ugly lengths to express their frustrations.

On the most recent episode of his podcast, "Hustle Play," Boucher spoke about how a fan once told him, “'I chose the wrong slave today.'” The 30-year-old went on to say that as a result of the despicable speech from fans, players don’t want to interact with them as much.

“Somebody said 'I chose the wrong slave today,'” Boucher said. “They literally sent me that message. I had to read it. I couldn't believe it.

"And now, guess what, the players now they don't really mess with the fans as much. We're lucky we're in Toronto, and we got the best fans. But I'm saying, imagine if you get messages like this. Now, you don't really want to— you don't know why that person is talking to you. I need you to score 10 today.

"Do I really want to talk to you now? Because if I score eight, you're going to flame my Twitter, my Instagram, and everything.”

The Montreal native also said that this kind of criticism takes a toll on players mentally, and that if they don’t have an adequate support system, their lives could spiral out of control.

“It gets to you,” Boucher said. “Now it's what, you're going to delete all your social and all that? Now you're losing your life, the life that you'd be living. And everything changed.

"So I could see how somebody could lose their mind over this really clearly. If you don't have the right people around you and if you don't have the right motive and the right intention on everything you do, you could lose that easily.”