US Problem Gambling Body Faces Backlash Over $2M Kalshi Partnership
Michigan and Nevada have cut ties with the NCPG after it took $2 million from prediction-market firm Kalshi, sparking a legitimacy crisis.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited by the ON360 newsroom.
A US-based advocacy group that sets industry standards for responsible gambling is facing a growing credibility crisis after two state affiliates cut ties over its financial relationship with prediction-market operator Kalshi. Gambling Insider reports that the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) has lost the Michigan Gaming Control Board as a sponsor and quietly parted ways with the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling since announcing Kalshi as the first member of a new “Financial Services & Trading” vertical earlier this year.
The controversy centres on a reported $2-million, two-year contribution from Kalshi to the NCPG — a sum critics say dwarfs the roughly $15,000 the Council typically charges for its top-tier “platinum” membership, or even the $100,000 annual fee for its leadership circle. The gap has fuelled speculation among affiliates about what, exactly, the payment was meant to secure.
Michigan walks away, calls Kalshi ties a threat to consumer protection
Michigan Gaming Control Board executive director Henry Williams sent a withdrawal letter to the NCPG on July 1, according to Gambling Insider, and the board also cancelled its paid sponsorship of the Council’s 2026 conference, held July 21-23. Williams argued Kalshi’s push into sports-linked contracts is “part of Kalshi’s broader strategy to remake the gambling industry” by “bulldozing countless regulations and the consumer-protection safeguards” states have built to protect residents.
Minnesota state Senator John Marty followed on July 28 with a letter to NCPG executive director Heather Maurer, urging the Council to end what he called an “unholy alliance” with Kalshi. Marty acknowledged the NCPG’s reliance on gambling-industry funding generally, but said Kalshi, as an unregulated platform, belongs in “a fundamentally different category,” Gambling Insider reported.
Nevada quietly severs affiliation
The Nevada Council on Problem Gambling sent Maurer a pointed letter in May flagging concerns about “organizational neutrality, consumer protection frameworks, and the relationship between prediction market products and existing responsible gaming infrastructure.” Both organizations subsequently scrubbed references to each other from their websites, and NVCPG executive director Trey Delap confirmed to Gambling Insider that Nevada is no longer an NCPG affiliate.
Josh Ercole, executive director of Pennsylvania’s Council on Compulsive Gambling, an active NCPG affiliate, told Gambling Insider the Kalshi money has “creat[ed] a whole bunch of interesting discussions” among affiliates about the Council’s intentions. He noted the NCPG has also been pursuing federal funding that has yet to materialize, raising questions about what the Kalshi contribution is actually being used for.
Ercole also pointed to an unrelated but ongoing dispute over the 1-800-Gambler helpline, which the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey wrestled back control of through legal action, prompting the NCPG to begin promoting a different number, 1-800-MY-RESET.
Why it matters north of the border
Kalshi’s push to offer sports-linked event contracts has already drawn legal scrutiny in the United States, including a Connecticut court ruling that its sports contracts amount to gambling rather than financial swaps. Canadian regulators, including the AGCO and iGaming Ontario, have not authorized Kalshi-style prediction markets to operate as gambling products, and Ontario’s regulated iGaming market continues to require licensed operators to offer standard player-protection tools such as deposit limits and self-exclusion.
The dispute nonetheless offers a cautionary tale for Canadian stakeholders watching the prediction-market space: as US federally regulated exchanges court sports bettors, questions about funding transparency and industry independence within problem-gambling advocacy are likely to follow the products across the border.
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