Families and Friends of Gamblers announced a 10-member initial board on Oct. 6, setting out an industry-independent, public-health-focused approach to U.S. gambling reform. The group said it would not accept contributions or memberships from gambling companies, and described its directors as having no ties to gambling interests or the sports-betting industry.
Richard Daynard chairs the board, whose members also include Mark Gottlieb, Harry Levant, W. Gordon Douglas, Franny Maguire Glomb, John Hanamirian, Deborah Haskins, Michelle McIver, Thomas Powell and Brian Quinn. FFOG said the group combines public-health, legal, research and advocacy expertise with firsthand experience of gambling-related harm.
The organization was founded in 2025 with support from the Public Health Advocacy Institute, a Boston-based nonprofit that uses law and policy to address harms linked to for-profit products and industries. FFOG uses advocacy, public education and community organizing to press for public-health regulation of gambling and its sports and technology partners.
FFOG and PHAI launched “Truth & Integrity: The Movement for Gambling Reform,” a campaign introduced in September. Its agenda calls for accountability and comprehensive federal and state regulation of gambling companies, prediction markets, and their sports and technology partners. The groups have also criticised the “Responsible Gaming” model as scientifically flawed because, they argue, it places too much responsibility for harm on consumers.
Levant said the country needed an independent voice on harm caused by gambling companies, sports leagues and prediction markets. Gottlieb invited people to join the movement without leaving other organizations or accepting every FFOG position.
FFOG and PHAI have framed their initiative as a renewal of gambling-reform advocacy away from gambling-industry interests, putting it in direct contrast with scrutiny of the National Council on Problem Gambling. The NCPG, founded in 1972, has faced questions over funding from gambling companies, sports leagues and prediction markets. It says its donors and members do not control its research, grants, advocacy or public positions, and maintains that it is neither for nor against gambling.
The NCPG’s recent turbulence included the resignation of executive director Heather Maurer in late September, after she had taken the role at the start of the year. Programmes director Jaime Costello resigned days before Maurer’s departure was announced.
In May, prediction-market operator Kalshi agreed a two-year, $2 million investment in an NCPG trader-health and safety initiative. The council subsequently created a prediction-markets sponsorship category. The Nevada Council on Problem Gambling ended its NCPG affiliation after the partnership, while the Michigan Gaming Control Board, Ohio Casino Control Commission and Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling withdrew memberships.
The NCPG’s own 2025 submission to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said sports-related futures function as gambling from a problem-gambling perspective and may operate outside responsible-gambling safeguards. It recommended protections comparable to those for licensed sports-betting operators, including information, limits, access to help and self-exclusion, and said gambling should be limited to people aged 21 and older.
