Heather Maurer, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), resigned in late September after facing backlash over the organization's decision to accept a $2 million donation from prediction market platform Kalshi, according to a recent Barron's report. The NCPG is the largest nonprofit in the United States dedicated to combating gambling addiction.

Maurer, who took the helm in January, finalized the Kalshi agreement without prior board approval and required directors to sign unprecedented nondisclosure agreements before the donation was revealed at an April conference, the report said. When directors pressed her on whether Kalshi had agreed to fund safety guardrails or promote addiction helplines, she acknowledged that it had not. That exchange set off months of internal revolt that ended with her departure less than 10 months into the job. The turmoil at the top of the country's largest gambling-addiction nonprofit carries weight beyond a single resignation: the dispute has already frayed the group's ties with the state organizations and regulators that operate alongside it.

Her resignation came just days after Jaime Costello, the NCPG's of programs, stepped down over differences with the organization's leadership. "I made this decision because, over the past year, the environment shifted in ways I could no longer reconcile with how I believe this work should be done," Costello wrote in a LinkedIn post.

The upheaval comes as betting on prediction markets has become increasingly pervasive across the U.S. Prominent platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket allow users as young as 18 to trade contracts on virtually anything, though most activity centers on sports wagers. Both have grown rapidly, with each reaching a valuation above $20 billion. That growth has fueled disputes with states and Native American tribes over regulatory authority, while drawing scrutiny from sports leagues over game integrity and from advocates who say the platforms' accessibility increases the risk of addiction.

The NCPG has also faced fallout from state problem-gambling organizations and regulators. Washington's Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling ended its 35-year affiliation with the national group in September, concluding that the two organizations were "no longer sufficiently aligned." The Ohio Casino Control Commission also withdrew that month. The Nevada Council on Problem Gambling reportedly cut ties in August, as did the Michigan Gaming Control Board in July. All four said they disagreed with the NCPG's decision to accept a donation from Kalshi. Spanning July through September, the withdrawals trace how quickly the dispute escalated from an internal governance fight into a public break between the national group and its state-level partners.

Donations from gambling operators to nonprofits like the NCPG are not unusual. DraftKings had provided more than $2 million to state problem-gambling councils and NCPG affiliates since 2022, according to a March 2025 company announcement. FanDuel also donated $100,000 directly to the NCPG during Problem Gambling Awareness Month in March 2023.

Kalshi's $2 million deal nonetheless sparked backlash because the platform rejects the idea that its business is gambling. To accommodate that position, the NCPG created a separate "financial services and trading" donor category, setting Kalshi apart from sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel, according to Barron's. How harm-prevention groups treat operator money, and how prediction markets' unsettled regulatory disputes with states and tribes get resolved, now stand among the open questions shadowing the sector's rapid growth.

Clarification, October 9, 2026: This article has been updated to clarify that state and federal regulators determine members' consumer-protection requirements.

This story was originally published by Fortune.