Heather Maurer’s last day as executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling was Friday 16 October, nine months after she started, and I do not think the next person will find the job any easier. The NCPG takes a large part of its income from the industries it exists to warn people about, so whoever holds the top job has to be the person who absorbs that contradiction every time one member objects to another. Since May, when the prediction market exchange Kalshi joined as the first platinum member of a new membership category with a pledge of $2 million, two state regulators and a state council have left, the programs director has gone, and now the executive director has gone too. Anyone recruiting into a role like that, or putting a senior colleague onto a body like it, should read that sequence properly first.
Key Takeaways
- Heather Maurer resigned as executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, confirmed on 28 September 2026 with a last day of 16 October, nine months into the job. Her predecessor Keith Whyte had held the post for 27 years, and programs director Jaime Costello left earlier in September 2026. (1)
- The departures followed the NCPG’s decision in May 2026 to admit the prediction market exchange Kalshi as the first platinum member of a new Financial Services and Trading category, with $2 million pledged over two years. The Ohio Casino Control Commission left on 26 June 2026, the Michigan Gaming Control Board in early July, and the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling in mid-August. (2)
- Great Britain removed the same conflict by law rather than by resignation. The statutory levy took effect on 6 April 2025 at 0.1 to 1.1 per cent of gross gambling yield, and GambleAware, which had depended on voluntary industry donations, closed on 31 March 2026. (4)
What actually happened at the NCPG?
The NCPG admitted a funder that one of its own members had fined two months earlier, and the members left rather than stay alongside it. Kalshi was announced on 18 May 2026 as the first member of the new Financial Services and Trading category, at platinum level, pledging $2 million over two years towards work on trader health and safety. In April, the Ohio Casino Control Commission had fined Kalshi $5 million for offering illegal gambling in Ohio. Ohio quietly ended its NCPG membership on 26 June, with interim executive director Andromeda Morrison pointing to the need to avoid association with anyone linked to illegal gambling. Michigan went next and was the first to say so publicly, and Nevada asked in June for the arrangement to be paused, was refused, and left in August. (2)
The NCPG’s answer, in a memo of 29 June signed by board president Derek Longmeier and by Maurer, was that membership is not endorsement. That is true as a matter of governance and it was never going to hold, because a regulator cannot be a dues-paying member of a body whose other dues-paying member it has just fined. By the week before the resignation Longmeier was writing that prediction markets are functionally gambling whatever their legal classification, and that the harm is not theoretical. The position had moved. The executive director had gone. (2)
Why is this a hiring problem and not only a funding one?
Because the funding question has no owner, so it keeps being settled by whoever is sitting in the chair. Keith Whyte did 27 years, the seat then stood empty for most of 2025, was filled in January 2026, and was empty again by October. I have watched people take jobs like this one for a long time, and the ones who stay are the ones whose funding question was settled before they arrived. The NCPG’s Form 990 for 2023 shows membership dues of $795,881 against total revenue of $2,342,604, so roughly a third of its money comes from the people whose products it comments on. (3) That is not a sideline for the development team. It is the budget, and it belongs to whoever is running the place.
The executive director has to keep members paying while telling some of those members that what they sell damages people, and when those two duties collide there is no structure behind them to take the decision instead. A board can write a memo saying membership is not endorsement, but it cannot make a regulator believe it.
Longmeier said the NCPG’s advocacy, programs and services would carry on “seamlessly” during the search. I understand why you reach for a word like that when three people have just left, though I would not want to be the candidate reading it. (2)
How did Great Britain answer the same question?
By taking the decision away from the charity altogether. The statutory levy has been in force since 6 April 2025, charging between 0.1 and 1.1 per cent of gross gambling yield depending on the sector, and it was designed to raise about £100 million a year for prevention, research and treatment. GambleAware, which had run on voluntary industry donations and had argued for a statutory system for years, announced in July 2025 that it would close in a managed way and stopped operating on 31 March 2026. (4)
That removed the conflict, since nobody at a levy-funded body has to telephone an operator in March to ask for next year’s contribution. It also removed the organisation and moved commissioning into government, which is slower and more political. Operators elsewhere should watch both, because the same question is waiting anywhere a prevention body is paid for by the sector it studies, and it stays quiet only until a funder arrives the other funders will not sit beside.
What should a board do about it now?
I would not take the NCPG job as it is written today, and I would want to know precisely what had changed before I told anyone else to. Treat this as a people question as much as a governance one, because most operators keep a register of the personal licences their senior staff hold and very few keep a register of the outside bodies those same people sit on, which is where it reaches you.
- Write down every external body your senior people sit on or represent you at, naming the person, the body, the role, and whether they hold it personally or on the organisation’s behalf.
- For each one, record who funds that body, in what proportion, and whether any single funder provides more than a stated share. If you cannot find that out, record that you could not.
- Check each funder and each prominent member against enforcement and litigation by any regulator that licenses you. Ohio had fined Kalshi two months before the NCPG took Kalshi’s money.
- Record the exit terms: how much notice is needed to leave, what gets published when you do, and who signs that off.
- Brief the person in the seat before they take it, putting in writing who they answer to when a funder and a member disagree. If you cannot answer that, do not put them there.
Boardroom Questions
- Which external bodies do our senior people sit on, and do we know who funds each of them?
- If a regulator that licenses us resigned from a body we belong to, how would we find out, and who would decide what we do next?
- What have we told the people we have placed on outside boards about whose interests they represent when those interests diverge?
- Would we take the job we are asking someone else to take, on the terms we are offering?
Sources
- National Council on Problem Gambling, resignation of executive director Heather Maurer, confirmed 28 September 2026, as reported by Gambling News, gamblingnews.com. Last day of 16 October 2026 to assist the transition, nine months after she started in January 2026 having been named incoming executive director in November 2025; she succeeded Keith Whyte, who left in January 2025 after 27 years; programs director Jaime Costello left earlier in September 2026; a search for a replacement is under way and no reason for the departure was given.
- Legal Sports Report, NCPG executive director Maurer resigns following fallout from Kalshi partnership, legalsportsreport.com. Kalshi announced on 18 May 2026 as the first member of the NCPG’s Financial Services and Trading category at platinum level with $2 million pledged over two years for a trader health and safety initiative; Ohio Casino Control Commission ended its membership on 26 June 2026, interim executive director Andromeda Morrison citing the need to avoid association with anyone linked to illegal gambling; Michigan Gaming Control Board the first to leave publicly in early July; Nevada Council on Problem Gambling requested a pause in June, was refused and left in mid-August, per the Nevada Current of 11 August; Massachusetts Gaming Commission commissioners said at their 10 September meeting that membership may no longer reflect the commission’s values; memo of 29 June signed by board president Derek Longmeier and Maurer stating that membership is not endorsement; later Longmeier memo calling prediction markets functionally gambling regardless of legal classification and saying the harm is not theoretical; Longmeier quoted that advocacy, programs and services would carry on seamlessly during the search; Ohio Casino Control Commission fine of $5 million against Kalshi in April 2026 for offering illegal gambling in Ohio.
- National Council on Problem Gambling Inc., Internal Revenue Service Form 990 for fiscal year 2023, EIN 51-0141872, filed 7 November 2024. Total revenue $2,342,604, contributions and grants $1,622,149 of which membership dues $795,881, and program service revenue $662,119.
GambleAware, managed closure announcement of 25 July 2025, reported by iGaming Business, igamingbusiness.com, with the statutory levy introduced under the Gambling Act review. Operations ceased 31 March 2026 with existing commissioning agreements honoured until the new system took over in April 2026; the statutory levy in force from 6 April 2025 charging 0.1 to 1.1 per cent of gross gambling yield depending on sector and vertical, designed to raise about GBP 100 million a year; Andy Boucher, chair of trustees, on having advocated a statutory system for many years, and gambling minister Baroness Twycross on a smooth and