He’s just 23 years old, yet this sports betting phenom once made $1.1 million in 50 days. Now “Parlay Patz,” real name Benjamin Tucker Patz, is in trouble for transmitting threats of violence directed at professional and collegiate athletes and their friends and families.
Federal authorities in Florida have arrested the New York resident and according to the criminal complaint, he used “multiple anonymous accounts on social media in 2019 to make threats against athletes, including members of the New England Patriots, several Major League Baseball teams and multiple college basketball and football players. Some of the threats contained derogatory terms and racial slurs,” ESPN reported.
If convicted of transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce, Patz faces a maximum penalty of up to five years in federal prison.
According to court papers, on March 9, 2019, the gambler allegedly sent four Instagram direct messages to an unidentified Pepperdine basketball player, with the threat: “Your throat will be severed open with a dull knife,” “Your entire family will be beheaded and burned alive,” “I will enter your home as you sleep and kill you” and “Watch your back, you’re a dead man walking.”
According to FBI Special Agent Daniel Nowak in an affidavit, the Instagram account that sent the threats to the Pepperdine player was registered with an email address linked to Patz.
Threats were also made similar threats against a college basketball player for Arizona, players for the Toronto Blue Jays, and Tampa Bay Rays, and the girlfriend of an Atlanta Braves player.
In all, authorities say Patz sent 18 messages from the Instagram account @parlaypatz to college and professional football and basketball players and there were more than 300 more threatening messages were directed at players from a number of anonymous accounts that authorities believe are linked to Patz.
“Your worthlessness costed me over 100,000$ tonight! Sad!” a Dec. 22, 2019, message from @parlaypatz to a college basketball player for Arizona said, ESPN reported.
Some of the threats contained racial slurs and death threats to not only the players but their family and friends, such as one that said: “I will cut open the throat of your baby” and “You will die.”
“His substantial and persistent online sports wagering suggests that Patz may have threatened athletes who played in games on which he had unsuccessfully wagered and lost money,” Nowak said in his affidavit, “or that he may have tried to influence the outcome of upcoming sports events on which he had wagered.”
