Missouri rejects a ban on college athlete prop bets after NCAA gambling scandals

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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.