The highly regulated gaming state of Nevada and the looser federal regulation of prediction markets have proven a rough fit for each other. According to the Nevada Current, this incompatibility will soon take the form of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling (NVCPG) distancing itself from the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) over the latter’s embrace of leading prediction market Kalshi.
In May, the NCPG created a new subcategory for membership, the “Financial Services & Trading Subcategory,” and announced a two-year partnership with Kalshi.
For some state regulatory bodies and advocacy groups in the problem gambling field, that has made associations with the NCPG untenable. The Michigan Gaming Control Board withdrew its membership on July 1, and the NVCPG confirmed to the Current that it plans to follow suit sometime this month.
NVCPG Executive Director Trey Delap told the Current, “After months of discussion, we’ve concluded that this is not simply a disagreement about one company. It reflects a fundamental difference in how we believe a problem gambling organization should respond to emerging gambling risks.”
Pause and effect
On June 1, Delap sent NCPG Executive Director Heather L. Maurer a letter “pausing renewal of its affiliate membership with the National Council on Problem Gambling,” only to be told by the NCPG that a membership could not be paused. So a full termination of the membership is coming, and according to Delap, “other state councils are all having serious conversations about withdrawing or redirecting their support.”
The NCPG did not respond to the Current’s request for comment.
Prior to the start of the defections, the NCPG counted 35 state organizations as affiliate members.
The confrontation between Nevada and Kalshi has been playing out throughout 2026. In March, the state banned Kalshi’s sports contracts and Nevada’s First Judicial District Court issued a temporary restraining order. That was followed in May by the court ordering Kalshi to begin geofencing the state, so customers couldn’t trade on sports inside state lines.
Kalshi tried using an in-house geolocation service at first, but Nevada said that proved inadequate, so starting this week, Kalshi is required to partner with a third-party geolocation specialist.
