NCPG defends Kalshi membership following high-profile regulator exits
WASHINGTON, D.C. The National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) has publicly defended its decision to grant corporate membership to prediction market operator Kalshi, following high-profile exits from prominent U.S. state gaming authorities.
The controversy surrounding the NCPG Kalshi membership has triggered a wave of departures from the national non-profit organization. Over recent months, major regulatory and harm-prevention bodies including the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB), the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC), and the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling severed their ties with the NCPG.
The departures stem from regulatory concerns over prediction markets, which offer event contracts tied to sports outcomes, economic indicators, and political elections. Multiple state jurisdictions classify these event contracts as unlicensed or illegal gambling, putting regulatory authorities at odds with platforms expanding consumer trading into sports and political domains.
The NCPG Kalshi membership and "functionally gambling" products
Despite the regulator pushback, the NCPG maintains that engaging directly with prediction market operators is necessary to fulfill its core mission of harm reduction.
Kalshi joined the council under its newly created Financial Services and Trading subcategory, contributing $2 million to help build out the NCPG's Financial Trader Health and Safety Initiative.
Addressing the growing controversy, NCPG President Derek Longmeier emphasized that consumer exposure to prediction markets and financial event trading has grown exponentially, particularly among younger demographics.
"Prediction markets have moved rapidly to a mainstream product used by millions of Americans. Regardless of how prediction markets are currently legally defined, NCPG believes it is functionally gambling and can expose consumers to many of the same risks and harms associated with traditional gambling," said Derek Longmeier, President of the NCPG.
"We've been clear about this well before we launched our Financial Trader Health and Safety Initiative earlier this year. And the exposure today in scale, in speed, and in reach to new and often young users is unprecedented. NCPG is neutral on whether prediction markets should be legal. We are not neutral on the need to prevent and reduce gambling-related harm wherever it occurs."
Independence and minimum safeguards
Longmeier also addressed questions regarding financial contributions, assuring stakeholders that corporate funding does not buy regulatory influence or editorial control over policy positions.
"Membership, funding or collaboration does not give any person or organization control over NCPG's research, advocacy, policy positions, or public statements," Longmeier explained. "We welcome engagement from gambling companies, sports leagues, prediction market platforms, financial-services organizations, regulators, policymakers, consumer advocates, researchers, community organizations, and prevention, treatment, and recovery professionals to advocate for and build real consumer protections such as responsible-engagement tools, self-exclusion options, age verification, clear risk disclosures, and direct lines to help."
"Our goal is to get ahead of harm, and we consider the aforementioned protections to be minimum standards for entities offering gambling and functionally gambling products."
The evolving boundary between trading and iGaming
The rift highlights an expanding friction between traditional state gambling regulations and federally oversighted financial trading platforms. While federal regulators like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and federal courts continue to navigate the legal boundary of event contracts, state gaming commissions have taken an aggressive stance against platforms offering sports-adjacent or political wagering without state-issued gaming licenses.
For the NCPG, maintaining neutrality on legal status allows the council to advocate for player protection tools directly within emerging financial trading apps, even as state regulators argue that membership risks legitimizing unlicensed entities.
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