The Massachusetts Gaming Commission, the state’s regulator of sports betting, voted Thursday to remain a member of the nation’s richest problem gambling group despite its recent infusion of cash from the controversial prediction market Kalshi.
MGC Chairman Jordan Maynard said leaving the National Council on Problem Gambling would be a “symbolic gesture,” and he opposed it. Regulators in Michigan cut ties with the group, and the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling recently did not renew its membership to the national organization.
Kalshi is currently blocked or restricted from offering sports-prediction markets in Michigan, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Washington. The company recently lost a major Ninth Circuit ruling that could eventually put the product’s legality before the U.S. Supreme Court. The firm could collapse if it loses its “sports-event contracts.”
NCPG ‘On Notice’
Despite the unanimous decision not to sever ties with the NCPG, Maynard warned the NCPG that the MGC may not renew its membership.
“There is ongoing litigation,” Maynard said of lawsuits against Kalshi. “We’re very proud of the work the Attorney General [Andrea Campbell] is doing. There are going to be some pending outcomes that may change our view on this. I’m hopeful that the NCPG can potentially influence anyone who does join them. I believe in running towards a problem, and this is definitely a problem that we need to keep an eye on. But I’m also opposed to symbolic gestures … we are going to wait and see.”
Maynard added that the “NCPG should be on notice that anything that we do, and anything that we’re a part of, we’re going to stand for our values.”
“I bet we’re going to have another conversation,” he said about the MGC’s upcoming decision on whether to renew its NCPG membership.
Kalshi, like other prediction markets, has advertised sports gambling as investing.
Online sports gambling, whether regulated, grey market, or offshore, appears to be an inherently predatory business, with 60% of users reporting chasing their losses, according to a 2026 Siena Research Institute survey. That concern was echoed in August, when former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams described online sports betting as the “new opioid crisis.”
Amid this growing epidemic, the Bettor Health Act, pending legislation in Massachusetts, would establish consumer protections that may reduce harm. The SAFE Bet Act is similar legislation at the federal level that would create nationwide minimum regulatory standards.
