At 23 years old, Benjamin "Parlay" Patz was on an extremely hot streak in the sports betting world, winning over a million dollars through parlays in under two months.
At 24 years old, Benjamin "Parlay" Patz could be looking at up to five years in federal prison.
Patz pleaded guilty in Tampa federal court to charges of "transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce," according to court records, which, in other words, involved Patz making extremely disturbing comments through social media messages toward athletes that were involved in his bets (via The Associated Press). The FBI has been investigating Patz since charges were initially made prior to 2021, and what they've uncovered is a series of violent messages.
"Your family will be beheaded," read one message that was sent to either a Tampa Bay Rays or Chicago White Sox player, after the Rays lost a home game to the White Sox in July 2019. Court records show other gruesome messages — "I will cut up your family" and "I will enter your home while you sleep and sever your neck open," among others — were sent to Rays players (via Gabriella Nunez of WKMG ClickOrlando).
Other messages from Patz indicated that he threatened to enter athletes' homes or contained derogatory terms and racial slurs, according to FBI investigators. After losing a bet that he placed on the Los Angeles Rams to win Super Bowl LIII, Patz sent messages to two Patriots players "claiming that he would rape and murder their families," officials said.
The initial criminal complaint, from early 2020, also indicated that Patz sent four Instagram messages to a Pepperdine basketball player, all of which stated similarly violent, unsettling messages (via ESPN).
Other players that have been threatened by Patz have come from MLB teams — specifically, the Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres, Oakland Athletics, Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals — as well as from the Swedish women's soccer team.
No sentencing date was set immediately after his guilty plea.
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