NCPG Executive Director Heather Maurer Resigns After Nine Months as Kalshi Exits Mount

The National Council on Problem Gambling has given no reason for Maurer's departure, which follows its director of programs out of the door and four state bodies out of its membership since it took $2 million from Kalshi in May. The board has started its second executive search in 20 months.

• Heather Maurer has resigned as executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), the board announced on Saturday 26 September; she stays until 16 October and the search for a successor begins immediately, with no reason given and no interim leader named
• Board president Derek Longmeier said NCPG staff would ensure its "advocacy, programs and services will carry on seamlessly during the search process"
• Maurer started on 7 January and was quoted in the council's May announcement of a $2 million, two-year investment from Kalshi, which made the prediction market the first member of a new Financial Services & Trading subcategory
• Since then the Ohio and Michigan regulators and the Nevada and Washington state problem-gambling councils have left, while Massachusetts stayed with a warning attached
• Director of programs Jaime Costello left days earlier, writing that her last day "came sooner than I had planned, not by my choice"

The Board Announces a Search and Gives No Reason

The National Council on Problem Gambling's board announced on Saturday 26 September that executive director Heather Maurer had resigned, according to The Closing Line, which first reported the news and published the board's statement. Maurer will remain until 16 October, the council told Covers on Monday, and the search for her replacement begins immediately. No reason was given. As of Tuesday the announcement had not been posted to the NCPG's own newsroom, where the latest item is a board statement on prediction markets dated 22 September.

The statement came from board president Derek Longmeier. "With the dedicated commitment and depth of experience of the NCPG staff, we assure all of our advocacy, programs and services will carry on seamlessly during the search process," he said, as quoted by The Closing Line, adding that "the need for NCPG's work to prevent and reduce gambling-related harm has never been greater". PlayUSA reports that the board has named neither an interim leader nor a timeline for the search. Longmeier, according to the council's board page, is also executive director of the Problem Gambling Network of Ohio.

The council named Maurer, previously chief executive of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health, in November 2025, effective 7 January 2026. She succeeded Keith Whyte, who led the organisation for more than two decades and left on 13 January 2025. When the council announced the Kalshi arrangement on 18 May, she was its named voice: "Innovation and responsibility can and must evolve together."

Jaime Costello, the council's director of programs, wrote on LinkedIn last Wednesday that she had given notice to leave on 9 October but that her "last day came sooner than I had planned, not by my choice", InGame reports. She said she left because "over the past year, the environment shifted in ways I could no longer reconcile with how I believe this work should be done."

Four Exits in Four Months

On 18 May the council said Kalshi would invest $2 million over two years in a "strategic initiative focused on trader health and safety" and join as a Platinum-level member of a new Financial Services & Trading Subcategory, while stating that it "maintains a neutral position on the legality of specific gambling, wagering, or prediction products".

The Ohio Casino Control Commission withdrew first, in a June letter that only became public in September. The Michigan Gaming Control Board followed on 1 July, in a letter from executive director Henry Williams addressed to Maurer herself. It said the partnership "directly undermines state enforcement actions", withdrew the regulator's staff from NCPG boards, committees and events, and cancelled its paid sponsorship of the annual conference, two days after Michigan obtained a temporary restraining order against Kalshi.

The Nevada Council on Problem Gambling severed ties in August. On 10 September the Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted to stay, with chairman Jordan Maynard signalling that renewal would bring "another conversation". A week later, on 17 September, the Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling, Washington's state affiliate, withdrew in an eight-page letter from board president Dr Ty W. Lostutter, obtained by GamblingHarm.org. It questioned whether the council had "a clear ethical framework for gift acceptance" and said that "from what NCPG has shared, it does not appear this was the case with the Kalshi agreement."

On 22 September Longmeier wrote that prediction markets are "functionally gambling" and "can expose consumers to many of the same risks and harms associated with traditional gambling", adding that "donor engagement does not mean endorsement." Kalshi remains a member, according to PlayUSA, citing Axios, which reported that the company disagreed with the council's assessment.

The Governance Complaint Is More Damaging Than the Kalshi One

The early exits were about Kalshi. Washington's letter changes the charge. According to excerpts published by the newsletter Straight to the Point, the Evergreen Council said the funding was accepted "without prior review and approval from the NCPG Board of Directors" and that the council's response to its affiliates showed "a fundamental shift in NCPG's organizational philosophy". Costello's words point the same way. A dispute about a donor can be settled by returning the money or waiting out the two years. A dispute about how an organisation takes decisions attaches to its leadership, which is why an executive director's exit, whatever its reason, lands as part of the same story.

The Council Has Moved Its Position, Not Its Membership

In May the council introduced Kalshi in the vocabulary of financial markets and trader health. In September its board president called prediction markets functionally gambling, which is close to the view Michigan and Nevada set out when they left, and it has done so while keeping the $2 million and the Platinum member. The council argues the two can coexist because it must go "where the harm is". But the bodies that left did not object to its analysis of harm; they objected to the association. The next executive director inherits a top-tier member that disputes the council's description of its product.

A Second Search in 20 Months Hands the Initiative to the States

The NCPG has had one permanent executive director since Whyte left, and she lasted nine months. It is now running its second executive search in 20 months, while its board president also leads the problem-gambling network of Ohio, whose regulator was the first to leave. The question for the remaining state members, Massachusetts among them, is whether a national body in transition is still the right place for responsible-gambling budgets and conference sponsorships. Michigan answered it in July. As US states keep fighting Kalshi in court, the council's value to them depends on being seen on their side of the argument, and it has not yet shown that it is.

The council says its work carries on seamlessly. Its members, and now its staff, have been saying something different since May.