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LANCASTER, PA (Gambling911.com) - It happened in 2024, but we are only learning about this now. Aidan Getchius of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was 19 years old when he allegedly placed a wager on Sept. 2, 2024, during the U.S. Open. It seemed rather innocuous at the time. Far from it however.
The story gets really convoluted from there.
First off, Getchius resides in the heart of "Amish Country", specifically Strasburg, Pennsylvania. Generally, traditional Amish religious teaching discourages or prohibits gambling. To be clear, reports that have emerged do not explicitly claim Getchius himself identifies as Amish. Nevertheless, this story is sure to rock that tight-knit community of around 3,117.
Getchius had placed a $100 online wager on Jasmine Paolini to defeat Karolina Muchova. Paolini was the No. 5 seed, but Muchova was taking control of the match. Getchius apparently became desperate to prevent his wager from being graded as a loss.
At 12:12 p.m., while the match was still underway, someone sent this direct message to the U.S. Tennis Association's X account:
“I’m inside Louis Armstrong with a bomb that will go off at 1 pm est”
Muchova finished off Paolini 6-3, 6-3 less than seven minutes later.
Federal prosecutors believe Getchius hoped that disrupting or stopping the match would allow him to avoid losing his $100 bet. He wasn't at the U.S. Open at all. He sent the threat from his mother's home roughly 160 miles away in Lancaster County.
The message went to Brian Maguire, the USTA's director of security and a former NYPD detective who spent 15 years working on the joint terrorism task force, and it was treated as a real terrorism threat.
Authorities traced the message to Getchius' own X account.
His online username was “GetchiSoto”, combining his surname with that of baseball star Juan Soto. According to the Inquirer, he used that name or variations of it across a bunch of services, including Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Kik, PlayStation, Xbox and TikTok.
As if things couldn't get any stranger, they did.
Getchius continued gambling after his arrest and guilty plea, according to prosecutors.
He reportedly made small sports wagers even after undergoing at least 10 counseling sessions and while he was still facing the possibility of federal imprisonment.
Getchius apparently wasn't even a tennis fan.
He worked at his grandfather's sports-memorabilia store in Strasburg. Among the merchandise sitting near the store's front window is an enormous souvenir tennis ball bearing the words “US OPEN", which may have served (no pun intended) as a source of enticement for him to place the US Open wager.
Breaking Down the Timeline of Events and Why We Are Only Learning About it Now
- Sept. 2, 2024: Getchius sends the bomb threat during the Paolini-Muchova U.S. Open match. There was no evacuation and apparently no major public disruption to the match.
- September 2025: Federal prosecutors charge him by information, rather than through a splashy arrest/indictment announcement.
- Nov. 12, 2025: He pleads guilty. The DOJ publicly announces the case and says he was trying to disrupt the women's match—but the DOJ release does not say that a losing sports bet was the reason he wanted the match stopped.
- May 2026: He is sentenced to three years' probation and a $1,000 fine. Local Pennsylvania media reported the sentence at the time, but still no mention as to the apparent real motive involving gambling.
- Sept. 6, 2026: The Philadelphia Inquirer publishes a much deeper reported feature (behind a firewall). Reporter Mike Sielski obtained and set to interpret sentencing materials while attending the sentencing. He also interviewed USTA security director Brian Maguire and others, and reconstructed why Getchius did it. That's when the US Open bet came to light.
He wasn't threatening the U.S. Open because of terrorism, revenge, or a grievance against the tournament. He had $100 riding on Jasmine Paolini and thought stopping the match might save his wager.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
