JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri gambling regulators on Thursday rejected a request from the NCAA to restrict bets on the performance of college athletes in response to recent betting scandals, but left open the possibility of revisiting the issue as the state's fledgling sports betting market gets better established.
The action by the Missouri Gaming Commission came just a week after the NCAA sent a letter to state gambling oversight boards asking them to ban college athlete prop bets — a popular type of wager focused on what individual players will do in a game, like scoring a certain amount of points in basketball or surpassing a particular passing yardage in football. The NCAA also urged states to ban certain other specialty bets, such as wagers on whether a team will trail by a particular point spread at halftime of a game.
The NCAA contends such bets are ripe for manipulation by athletes facing pressure, harassment or bribes from bettors. It pointed to last week's federal indictment of more than two dozen people for alleged bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy in a scheme that involved more than 39 players on more than 17 NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams attempting to rig more than 29 games.
But Missouri gambling regulators said they didn't want to change the state's rules less than two months after legal sports betting launched in the state. Missouri became the 39th — and latest — state to allow sports betting on Dec. 1 under a state constitutional amendment that narrowly won voter approval.
“I just don’t feel that I have enough information to grant a request by the NCAA to prohibit this type of sports wagering, because I don’t know enough yet,” commission chair Jan Zimmerman said.
Legal sports betting has spread quickly across the U.S. since the Supreme Court cleared the way for states to adopt it in 2018. Through the first 11 months of 2025, legal sportsbooks generated $15 billion in revenue, up over 17% from the same period a year earlier, according to the American Gaming Association. Missouri has not yet reported its initial sports betting revenues.
Prop bets on professional athletes are currently allowed in every state that has legalized sports betting. But states have widely differing rules for bets on college athletes.
More than a dozen states place no limits on collegiate prop bets while nearly an equal number prohibit all such bets. Missouri is among several states that fall somewhere in between. It prohibits prop bets on athletes playing in games involving Missouri colleges and universities but allows them for all other collegiate games.
The NCAA in 2023 began encouraging states to adopt restrictions on bets involving college athletes. Since then, Louisiana, Maryland, Ohio and Vermont have joined the ranks of states banning individual prop bets on college athletes.
NCAA President Charlie Baker said in his recent letter to state gambling regulators that his office “regularly hears concerns from schools and student-athletes across the country on the impacts of sports betting,” including about prop bets.
In written comments to the Missouri Gaming Commission, a sports betting industry group said its members played an integral role in detecting and disclosing to authorities the unscrupulous betting involved in last week's indictment.
Rather than providing grounds to restrict bets on college athletes, the Sports Betting Alliance said the case highlights how legal sportsbooks can help catch instances of wrongdoing that might otherwise go undetected if people placed prop bets through unregulated bookies.
The alliance — which includes Bet365, BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics Betting & Gaming — argued that the NCAA's request didn't meet Missouri's criteria for regulatory revisions and “should not trigger a radical change” to the state's new sports betting industry.
Others also expressed opposition to the betting limits backed by the NCAA.
Restricting prop bets on college athletes would drive gamblers to "offshore and illegal operators” with fewer consumer protections, Kansas City sports wagerer Chuck Kucera said in written comments to the commission.
“The NCAA's efforts would be better directed toward player education, internal compliance, and enforcement of its own rules,” Kucera wrote.
FILE - Advertisements for sports betting apps are seen in downtown Kansas City, Mo., Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
ATLANTA (AP) — Bread was flying off the shelves, salt was being loaded into trucks and utility workers were nervously watching forecasts Thursday as a huge winter storm that could bring catastrophic damage, widespread power outages and bitterly cold weather was barreling toward the eastern two-thirds of the U.S.
The massive storm system is expected to bring a crippling ice storm from Texas through parts of the South, potentially around a foot (30 centimeters) of snow from Oklahoma through Washington, D.C.; New York and Boston and then a final punch of bitterly cold air that could drop wind chills to mius-50 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-46 Celsius) in parts of Minnesota and North Dakota.
Forecasters are warning the damage, especially in areas that get a large amount of ice, could rival a hurricane. About 160 million people were under winter storm or cold weather watches or warnings — and in many places both.
The storm was expected to begin Friday in New Mexico and Texas and then the worst of the weather will move east into the Deep South before heading up the coast and thumping New England with snow.
Cold air streaming down from Canada caused Chicago Public Schools and Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa to cancel classes Friday. Wind chills predicted to be as low as minus-35 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-37 Celsius) could cause frostbite within 10 minutes making it too dangerous to walk to school or wait for the bus.
The cold punch coming after means it will take a while to thaw out, an especially dangerous prospect in places where ice and snow weighs down tree branches and powerlines and cuts electricity, perhaps for days. Roads and sidewalks could remain icy well into next week.
Freezing temperatures are expected all the way to Florida and lows in the North and Midwest will get about as cold as possible, even down to minus 25 or 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 32 to minus 34 degrees Celsius), forecasters said.
A severe cold snap five years ago took down much of the power grid in Texas, leaving millions without power for days and resulting in hundreds of deaths. Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that won't happen again.
The power system "has never been stronger, never been more prepared and is fully capable of handling this winter storm,” he said. “There is no expectation whatsoever that there is going to be any loss of power from the power grid.”
Winter storms can be notoriously tricky to forecast — one or two degrees can mean the difference between a catastrophe or a cold rain — and forecasters said the places with the worst weather can't be pinned down until the event starts.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in his state like many other governors while acknowledging Thursday morning some forecasts have disastrous levels of wintery weather in Atlanta while others have the Deep South's largest city mostly spared.
Ahead of the storm, Atlanta resident Jennifer Girard bought some blankets and batteries Thursday on a Walmart shopping trip in nearby Chamblee with her 21-month-old baby.
Canned food, batteries and water were among the most popular items, leaving shelves less stocked than usual.
“I used to live in Florida, we used to do that all the time for hurricane season, so it’s not so different,” she said.
As a precaution, North Carolina’s largest public school system was preparing for potentially several days out of physical classrooms next week. The Wake County school system, with 161,000 students in and around Raleigh, told its nearly 11,000 teachers to create three days of assignments accessible online or through paper copies.
Brine trucks were already treating roads from Oklahoma to Tennessee with more states expected to begin treating roads as the start of the storm gets closer.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger told her residents to prepare for days without power or the ability to get out of their neighborhoods. And in a nod to the politics of the time, the newly inaugurated Democrat said people should not be scared to call 911 in an emergency just because of the immigration crackdowns going on in places like Minnesota.
“If someone needs to call police, having a health emergency needs to call first responders, please do so and ensure the safety of your friends, neighbors and family. And, stay warm," Spanberger said.
College sports teams moved up or postponed games, and the Texas Rangers canceled their annual Fan Fest event.
The city of Carmel, Indiana, canceled its Winter Games out of fear residents could get frostbite and hypothermia competing in ice trike relay and “human curling” in which people slide down a skating rink on inner tubes.
But the Nashville Symphony said Thursday its weekend performances of “Frozen” were still going on as expected. And in Charleston, West Virginia, organizers said the annual West Virginia Hunting and Fishing Show will go on after more than 150 exhibitors signed up for the sold-out event that is expected to draw about 12,000 people Friday through Sunday.
The forecast calls for rain, freezing rain and snow, but with outfitters coming from all over the U.S. as well as Canada and South Africa, the show must go on, said Glen Jarrell, a spokesperson for the West Virginia Trophy Hunters Association, the event’s promoter.
“We’re not thinking about stopping. We don’t care if it’s rain, snow or high water," Jarrell said.
Murphy reported from Oklahoma City and Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writers around the country contributed to this report.
Ice forms on a pier along Lake Michigan ona. cold Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
A loaf of bread sits on empty shelves in the bread isle in grocery store ahead of winter weather, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A digital billboard along Highway 75 warns of road preparations for upcoming inclement weather expected in the region Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Richardson, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
A shopper buys groceries Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn., ahead of a winter storm expected to hit the state over the weekend. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
